One side effect of our collective global coffee addiction is the transformation of native forest into coffee plantations. But are all coffee plantations created equal? How does shade grown coffee match up to the native forest it replaces? Can it still be good habitat for birds? Canada Warblers make a long trek each year from their breeding grounds in the high latitude forests of North America to their wintering grounds in South America, and they need high quality fuel when they get there. We're diving into a study that works to find out how well shade coffee measures up to native forest for these weary travelers. Find the article and follow along here: "Contrasting the suitability of shade coffee agriculture and native forest as overwinter habitat for Canada Warbler (Cardellina canadensis) in the Columbian Andes" (Gonzalez et al, 2020).
28 Mar 2020
There and back again: a natural selection tale
We usually think about natural selection making small changes, generation by generation, over long time spans. But during extreme weather events, high mortality means natural selection acts fast. How do these extreme events drive evolution? At a long term study site in Nebraska, researchers took advantage of continuous Cliff Swallow monitoring to look at the effects of three extreme weather events in the last 30 years, finding opposite selection pressures for similar climatic events. Check out the article here: "Changing patterns of natural selection on the morphology of Cliff Swallows during severe weather" (Brown et al 2018). To learn more about the long term monitoring project, check out their nice website here: https://www.cliffswallow.org/
6 Feb 2020
Why did the Sanderling cross the globe?
We might assume it's because the grass is greener on the other side. But this month's study suggests that some migrant Sanderlings headed to the tropics are getting less than they bargained for. Tune in to our chat about the costs and benefits of migration, the importance of falsifying hypotheses, the logistics of studying a species over 13,000 kilometers, and how wintering habitat can make or break success on the breeding grounds. Find the article here: "Low fitness at low latitudes: Wintering in the tropics increases migratory delays and mortality rates in an Arctic breeding shorebird" (Reneerkens et al 2019).
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