What mechanisms drive avian demographic and population responses to climatic change?

Supervisors: Professor Ben Hatchwell and Dr Karl Evans

Key words: birds, avian demographics, biodiversity,climatic change

Project Description

Associations between avian population trends and climate variables are well documented, but our current understanding of the mechanisms underlying the impacts of climate change on biodiversity is rudimentary, hindering predictions of future impacts. There are several potential mechanisms through which changing climate may influence bird populations. For example, climate change may influence survivorship and/or productivity, and such effects may be mediated via food supplies and/or predators. The aim of this CASE studentship with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is to provide the first rigorous test of alternative demographic mechanism(s) through which the effects of climate change on a temperate bird species are mediated. The long-tailed tit Aegithalos caudatus is an ideal model system because its advancement in timing of breeding, which is known to be sensitive to spring temperatures, is amongst the most marked of any resident passerine, and the UK population is growing rapidly. The studentship will combine analysis of local (Sheffield) and national (BTO) long-term datasets on breeding success, survival and recruitment to determine the relative effects of changes in demographic traits on population dynamics. The processes through which these effects are mediated will be determined via intensive fieldwork on an established marked population of long-tailed tits near Sheffield. The student will join a stimulating and productive research group, and will receive training in field techniques and statistical modelling in Sheffield and at the British Trust for Ornithology.

Please contact Ben Hatchwell b.hatchwell@sheffield.ac.uk or Karl Evanskarl.evans@sheffield.ac.uk for further information.


Starting date: 1 October 2010 or as soon as possible thereafter.

How to apply: Complete an on-line application form via University of Sheffield web site at http://www.shef.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/apply/index.html. Send a full CV, via email to Mrs S Carter, s.a.carter@sheffield.ac.uk, or a hard copy to Mrs S Carter, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN.

Closing date for applications: 5 March 2010.