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SENR

School of Environment and Natural Resources

CFAES

SENR Seminar Series

Apr 23, 2015, 4:00pm - 5:15pm

The SENR Seminar Series welcomes Christopher Tonra, Assistant Professor, OSU School of Environment and Natural Resources, who will present Avian Ecology in the Context of the Full Annual Cycle.

While annual cycles pervade most aspects of vertebrate wildlife ecology, the vast majority of research has occurred on only one stage of these cycles, the breeding stage. Furthermore, very few studies examine more than one annual cycle, and even fewer have tried to elucidate how different stages interact with one another.  This bias in vertebrate ecology has limited our understanding of the nature of population dynamics, and moving beyond it is critical to effectively managing and conserving populations.  My research seeks to fill in these gaps in our understanding of wildlife populations with a particular focus on birds.  I will be presenting results from research on Neotropical migratory birds, examining how different stages of the annual cycle interact physiologically within individuals. I will then discuss how I have been investigating the influence of non-breeding season events on breeding success and life history variation in a terrestrial consumer of aquatic prey during the largest dam removal in history. Lastly I will discuss how I am continuing to expand my research program here in Ohio, by linking breeding events of a forested wetland species to conditions experienced on its tropical wintering grounds in Panama.

The SENR Seminar begins at 4:10 p.m in 164 Howlett Hall with a video link to 123 Williams Hall on the Wooster campus.