UNB ACWERN Newsletter
Vol. 1 (Fall 2000)
News from the Diamond Lab at the University of New Brunswick….
Personnel:
We’ve had lots of comings and goings in the recent months here at UNB and we decided to follow up on the ACWERN Newsletter. The following contains brief updates on everyone in the Diamond lab.
Tony Diamond was appointed to the Science and Technology Advisory Board of Environment Canada in August, and represents Environment on the Council of Science and Technical Advisors. These bodies advise federal science based departments and the federal Cabinet (respectively), on the management of science in the federal government. It is striking (and a little scary!) how often ACWERN is mentioned as a model for research related to government needs. Tony continues as a member of the National Council of Bird Studies Canada and of the Board of Trustees of the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, both bodies concerned with issues (bird populations, and protected areas) of relevance to ACWERN's research mandate.
In the fall of 1999, Kim Mawhinney successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, ‘Factors affecting adult female crèche attendance and duckling survival of Common Eiders in the southern Bay of Fundy and northern Gulf of Maine.’ She is has recently accepted a position as Species at Risk Biologist for Parks Canada (Atlantic Region).
Also in the fall of 1999, Laurel Bernard defended her masters thesis, ‘Habitat Selection and Breeding Success of Black Terns (Chlidonias niger) in Impounded Wetlands in New Brunswick.’ She started working for Tony Diamond as a research assistant April 1999, where she spent the summer on Machias Seal Island, assisting Kate Devlin with her research. Her job with Tony has allowed her to work with many grad students on their projects, which she really enjoys. She also works on analyzing Machias Seal Island data, maintaining the UNB ACWERN webpage, and planning the ACWERN meeting. She plans on attending the Waterbirds meeting this fall for a final presentation of her thesis, and hopes to have a manuscript published soon.
Last spring two more
students from the Diamond lab successfully earned their degrees.
Falk Huettmann defended his dissertation, ‘Environmental determination
of seabird distribution patterns off Eastern and Arctic Canada’ and
is currently a postdoctoral research fellow with the Centre for Wildlife
Ecology at Simon Fraser University. He is writing up papers and is involved
with the Marbled Murrelet project in BC.
Dorothy McFarlane also defended her thesis, ‘Post-fledging movements
and territoriality of forest songbirds’ and is presently working
on an 8-month contract for Partners in Flight-Canada as Atlantic Regional
Coordinator for Landbird Conservation (supervised by CWS). She got this
position through her connection to CWS through ACWERN.
Cam Stevens will be the next to defend his thesis on 16 October 2000.
His masters thesis is titled, ‘An Experimental Study of Faunal Communities
in Small Wetlands on Prince Edward Island.’ While waiting for a defense
date this past summer, he has been in Alberta starting a doctorate degree
with Dr. Cindy Paszkowski. His Ph.D. thesis is currently titled: ‘Amphibians
associated with forest streams on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, central
Alberta.’ He is working with Weyerhauser and within their Drayton
Valley Forest Management Area. They will be exploring predator-prey interactions,
Boreal Toad movements, food webs via stable isotopes, and the role of
beaver in shaping the ecology of amphibians in the foothills.
Peter McKinley is living in Massachusetts while rewriting thesis drafts and looking forward to completion of the writing by the end of the year. His thesis is titled ‘Arthropod density and diversity, and tree species structure as determinants of avian foraging use.’ He expects to defend in late winter and looks forward to being able to pursue job prospects at that time.
John Gunn is continuing to work on his dissertation, ‘Landscape effects of industrial forestry on the reproductive success of forest songbirds,’ and expects to have it completed by spring 2001. For the last two years he has been working as the forester/ecologist for a 150-year-old family-owned timberland management company in southwestern Maine. He is responsible for the planning of long-term forest management and conservation activities on 6500 ha of pine-oak forest. His major activities lately have focused on the final stages of implementing a conservation easement with The Nature Conservancy to permanently protect 1300 ha of a rare pitch pine-heath forest community and surrounding timberland from development. The data management and GIS skills he picked up during his graduate research have proven to be essential in his day-to-day activities.
Julie Paquet is also working towards the completion of her thesis, ‘Time budget flexibility of breeding Arctic Terns (Sterna paradisaea).’ While finishing her masters she started as an intern for the Endangered Species Division at CWS Sackville in April 1999 and then won a competition for the position of Wildlife Technician in October 1999. She works for four people in the Ecosystem Science Division, namely Peter Hicklin (Shorebird Biologist), Al Hanson (Wetland Biologist), John Chardine (Seabird Biologist and Data Manager) and Neal Burgess (Ecotoxicologist). Her time is spent in the field working for the different projects overseen by these biologists, as well as on data management, analysis, and report writing over the winter months.
Erin Nixon is also working long distance on her master’s thesis, ‘Habitat requirements of Bicknell’s Thrush.’ She is currently based in Ontario.
Diana Hamilton has been an NSERC Postdoctoral fellow in the Diamond lab since May 1999. She is currently studying community dynamics on intertidal mudflats in the Bay of Fundy. She is particularly interested in the effects of shorebirds feeding in the system, and the relationship between two of the most common invertebrates in the community – the amphipod Corophiumvolutator and the mud snail Ilyanassa obsoleta.
Kate Devlin has completed her second field season for her dissertation, ‘Birds crossing borders: Population dynamics of Arctic Terns, Sterna paradisaea.’ She is collaborating with CWS, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Audubon Society for her work in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of Maine. Currently she is spending the fall/winter months in the lab learning and developing the techniques she needs for the genetic aspect of her research.
Tara Warren has also completed her second field season. Her research is based in northern New Brunswick and her master’s thesis is entitled: ‘Assessing habitat quality for cavity-nesting birds in an industrial forest landscape.’ She is currently busy sorting through and analyzing data.
Karel Allard finished his second field season for his MSc. work in the Arctic on ‘The influence of avian predators on egg and duckling survival of Common Eider ducks (Somateria mollissima) on Southampton Island, Nunavut.’ The study, which was initiated in 1999, takes place at a remote eider colony in the eastern arctic, where the Canadian Wildlife Service has established blinds equipped with tunnels for the discrete observation of breeding birds.
Several NEW STUDENTS have joined the ACWERN lab at UNB in recent months:
Matt Betts has completed his first field season of his Ph.D. research project entitled: ‘An examination of aspatial and spatial habitat factors on the reproductive success of forest birds.’ The two major objectives of this study are: (1) To test hypotheses relating to the potential area-sensitivity of mature forest birds, (2) To test hypotheses about avian stand-level habitat requirements used by the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources in Crown forest management.
Lasha Young just arrived from Northern Alberta in September and is beginning her MSc. She will be examining forest birds in buffer strips and the effects of different levels of selective logging on these birds. Variables she’ll be looking at will include density, productivity and species richness.
Neal Simon was previously an ACWERN member from 1996-1998 during which he completed a M.Sc.F. degree. He is currently employed by the Department of Forest Resources and Agrifoods as the Ecosystem Ecologist for Labrador. His main function is to develop research projects that answer questions evolving out of the Forestry Management Planning process. One such project tentatively titled "Songbird abundance and fecundity in relation to forest structure and productivity" will be the basis for his Ph.D. thesis.
Brenda Blinn conducted preliminary fieldwork for her masters this past summer. She will be working on ‘Factors affecting brood rearing habitat use of the Common Eider on the New Brunswick Bay of Fundy Mainland.’ Her undergraduate degree is from Universite de Moncton and she’s originally from Nova Scotia.
Sarah Jamieson is another graduate student who enjoys working with all types of seaducks (both inside and out). She comes to us from Memorial University of Newfoundland where she worked primarily on Common Murres and Black-legged Kittiwakes during her undergraduate years. Her masters thesis is titled: ‘Annual variation in body condition and diet of migratory and sedentary Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima borealis and Somateria mollissima sedentaria).’
Jill Boucher joins Sarah in her interest of migrating birds and is beginning a MScF. on ‘Potential effects of climate change on migrating birds.’
Other waterbird oriented
new graduate students include Dedreic Grecian and Andre Breton.
Dedreic Grecian started working on his project in May 2000. He is working
on Machias Seal Island with razorbills. He is interested in habitat usage
and relative productivity among nest sites. He is working on the development
of a sensitive survey method using radio telemetry and is also interested
in the winter habitat of razorbills and will take up where Falk Huettmann
left off.
Andre Breton received a BA in Biology from the Massachusetts College of
Liberal Arts. Since then he has been involved with field work studying
seabirds on the South Shetland Islands in Antarctica, the Farallon Islands
in California, and several islands in the Gulf of Maine. He has proposed
the following topic for his masters thesis: ‘Intercolony movement
and survival of sub-adult Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) in the
Gulf of Maine.’
Nikki Benjamin has
worked as a wildlife technician for the past 12 years, the last five of
which have been with Tony Diamond. She is currently in a qualifying period
for a MSc. and is in the beginning stages of planning her research. Despite
how common gulls are in the Atlantic region, very little research has
been done on them. She will be attempting to learn more about the biology
of Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls, any interspecies competition
there may be between the two, and to what extent they both use artificial
food sources such as landfill sites, fish packing plants, bait from lobster
fishing, and food pellets from salmon aquaculture cages.
Conferences and papers:
In August there was a showing of UNB-ACWERN papers at the "Living On the Edge – Birds 2000" conference which was a joint meeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union, the Society of Canadian Ornithologists and the British Ornithologists’ Union. The meeting took place at Memorial University. The following papers were presented:
Julie Paquet and Antony W. Diamond. Loafing as a behavioral buffer for environmental change.
Dorothy McFarlane and Antony W. Diamond. Post-fledging movements and territoriality
of forest songbirds.
Diana J. Hamilton and Antony W. Diamond. Trophic dynamics on an intertidal
mudflat: The importance of predation by Semipalmated Sandpipers, nutrient
enhancement, and compensatory interactions among species.
Falk Huettmann and Antony W. Diamond. Seabird migration in the Canadian
North Atlantic: Moulting locations and movement patters of immatures.
Antony W. Diamond and Laurel Bernard. Seabirds as ecological indicators:
What can they really tell us?
Antony W. Diamond and Dorothy M. McFarlane. Content versus context in
songbird demographics.
At the upcoming meeting of the Waterbirds Society which will be meeting in Massachusetts in November several more UNB-ACWERN papers will be presented. These papers include:
Laurel J. Bernard and Antony Diamond. Black Tern habitat selection and breeding success in impounded wetlands.
V. Dedreic Grecian and Antony W. Diamond. Using radio telemetry to census
breeding Razorbills in a heterogenous habitat.
Catherine M. Devlin, Antony W. Diamond, Stephen W. Kress, Stan Skutek
and Linda Welch. Birds crossing borders: Arctic Terns breeding in the
Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy.
Catherine M. Devlin and Antony W. Diamond. No please, after you: Is there
a sex-bias in trapping Arctic Terns at the nest?
Antony W. Diamond, Laurel J. Bernard and Catherine M. Devlin. Effects
of weather on seabirds of Machias Seal Island; Harbingers of climate change?
