Can we predict impacts of environmental change on biodiversity from knowledge of behavioural decisions?
Researcher(s): Dr Ross MacLeod
Department: Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, MVLS
Institution: University of Glasgow
Brief Description: My research provides an improved scientific basis for predicting effects of environmental and climate change, particularly on the bird species that the Scottish Government uses to monitor the health of our natural environment. I use an innovative combination of risk trade-off theory, experiments and long term datasets to demonstrate how individual behavioural responses to environmental conditions are linked to changes in populations. I use SCENE to investigate how common birds manage their body mass and fat reserves in response to conflict between risk of starvation and risk of predation. Previous work has demonstrated that mass change in small birds is reliably predicted by this conflict, and I have recently shown that mass change strategies are linked to population decline in many common birds (MacLeod et al. 2007). My work is making the ground breaking advance of linking population mass change responses to changing environmental conditions through changes in individual fitness. The results will enable the development of improved environmental monitoring systems capable of giving early warning of developing environmental problems.
Funding Source(s): Royal Society of Edinburgh Scottish Government Research Fellowship.
Project Status: Ongoing project
Start Date: 1/10/10
End Date: 31/09/15