A Showcase Magazine Feature: http://www.trentu.ca/showcase/

“Students are intrinsic to all of my research,” says Dr. Erica Nol, a Biology professor now in her 26th year teaching at Trent University. In her study of Arctic Shorebirds, Professor Nol asks, “What is the most vulnerable period of time in a shorebird’s life?” Prof. Nol teaches in the Biology Department and the Conservation and Ecology Group within the Environmental and Life Sciences Graduate Program.

Early Spring Makes Birds Late for Dinner

Millions of long-distance migratory shorebirds fly to Arctic feeding grounds for a bounty of insects that emerge during the short arctic summer. With earlier springs in the arctic as a result of climate change, the birds may arrive too late to benefit from the flood of insects that provide food for their young. This timing mismatch is one aspect of the work of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in Prof. Nol’s lab, currently working in the tundra and wetland habitats around Churchill, Manitoba.

Students study directly on breeding grounds, during migration, and on wintering grounds, using research techniques that range from highly complex to simply clever. Geolight loggers, attached to bands on the legs of birds, record daylight hours and enable exact latitudes and rough longitude destinations to be recorded and charted to reveal flight path arcs. Working with a collaborator from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Prof. Nol’s team has established that most of the eastern Arctic Dunlin populations spend their winters in the southeastern United States.

More Students in the Field

Financial assistance for work on arctic-breeding birds comes from the recently developed Arctic Shorebird Demographic Network (ASDN), a group of American and Canadian researchers who collaborate using standardized protocols for measuring shorebird survival, nesting success, invertebrate food, and predator numbers. As a result of this funding, in addition to grants from NSERC and Environment Canada, Prof. Nol has been able to put more students in the field. She usually works with about ten students each academic year, both M.Sc. and Ph.D. students.

“Students typically conduct their field work for a couple of summers and often return to the field in the third year to train new students, creating a successful integration through their overlapping participation,” explains Prof. Nol.