Ecological and anthropogenic drivers of waterfowl productivity are synchronous across species, space, and time.

Knowledge of interspecific and spatiotemporal variation in demography-environment relationships is key for understanding the population dynamics of sympatric species and developing multispecies conservation strategies. We used hierarchical random-effects models to examine interspecific and spatial variation in annual productivity in six migratory ducks (i.e.

BAITING AND BANDING: EXPERT OPINION ON HOW BAIT TRAPPING MAY INFLUENCE THE OCCURRENCE OF HIGHLY PATHOGENIC AVIAN INFLUENZA (HPAI) AMONG DABBLING DUCKS.

A Eurasian lineage highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) of the clade 2.3.4.

Sources of exposure to lead in Arctic and subarctic regions: a scoping review.

Understanding lead exposure pathways is a priority because of its ubiquitous presence in the environment as well as the potential health risks. We aimed to identify potential lead sources and pathways of lead exposure, including long-range transport, and the magnitude of exposure in Arctic and subarctic communities. A scoping review strategy and screening approach was used to search literature from January 2000 to December 2020.

Tularemia above the Treeline: Climate and Rodent Abundance Influences Exposure of a Sentinel Species, the Arctic Fox (), to .

Tularemia is a zoonotic disease found throughout most of the northern hemisphere that may experience range expansion with warming temperatures. Rodents and lagomorphs are reservoirs for the disease, and outbreaks of tularemia often follow peaks in their abundance. As small mammals dominate the diet of arctic foxes (), we determined whether they may serve as sentinels by identifying antibodies in live-captured and harvested foxes from northern Canada.

Understanding and strengthening wildlife and zoonotic disease policy processes: A research imperative.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the urgency and importance of monitoring, managing and addressing zoonotic diseases, and the acute challenges of doing so with sufficient inter-jurisdictional coordination in a dynamic global context. Although wildlife pathogens are well-studied clinically and ecologically, there is very little systematic scholarship on their management or on policy implications. The current global pandemic therefore presents a unique social science research imperative: to understand how decisions are made about preventing and responding to wildlife diseases, especially zoonoses, and how those policy processes can be improved as part of early warning systems, preparedness and rapid response.

Drought at a coastal wetland affects refuelling and migration strategies of shorebirds.

Droughts can affect invertebrate communities in wetlands, which can have bottom-up effects on the condition and survival of top predators. Shorebirds, key predators at coastal wetlands, have experienced widespread population declines and could be negatively affected by droughts. We explored, in detail, the effects of drought on multiple aspects of shorebird stopover and migration ecology by contrasting a year with average wet/dry conditions (2016) with a year with moderate drought (2017) at a major subarctic stopover site on southbound migration.

Partial and complete dependency among data sets has minimal consequence on estimates from integrated population models.

Integrated population models (IPMs) are widely used to combine disparate data sets in joint analysis to better understand population dynamics and provide guidance for conservation activities. An often-cited assumption of IPMs is independence among component data sets within the combined likelihood. Dependency among data sets should lead to underestimation of variance and bias because individuals contribute data to more than one data set.

Hopping species and borders: detection of Bartonella spp. in avian nest fleas and arctic foxes from Nunavut, Canada.

Background: In a warmer and more globally connected Arctic, vector-borne pathogens of zoonotic importance may be increasing in prevalence in native wildlife. Recently, Bartonella henselae, the causative agent of cat scratch fever, was detected in blood collected from arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) that were captured and released in the large goose colony at Karrak Lake, Nunavut, Canada. This bacterium is generally associated with cats and cat fleas, which are absent from Arctic ecosystems.

Assessing bias in demographic estimates from joint live and dead encounter models.

Joint encounter (JE) models estimate demographic rates using live recapture and dead recovery data. The extent to which limited recapture or recovery data can hinder estimation in JE models is not completely understood. Yet limited data are common in ecological research.

Land-use change increases climatic vulnerability of migratory birds: Insights from integrated population modelling.

Knowledge of land-use patterns that could affect animal population resiliency or vulnerability to environmental threats such as climate change is essential, yet the interactive effects of land use and climate on demography across space and time can be difficult to study. This is particularly true for migratory species, which rely on different landscapes throughout the year. Unlike most North American migratory waterfowl, populations of northern pintails (Anas acuta; hereafter pintails) have not recovered since the 1980s despite extended periods of abundant flooded wetlands (i.

Consistent declines in wing lengths of Calidridine sandpipers suggest a rapid morphometric response to environmental change.

A recent study demonstrated that semipalmated sandpiper (Calidris pusilla) wing lengths have shortened from the 1980s to the present-day. We examined alternative and untested hypotheses for this change at an important stopover site, James Bay, Ontario, Canada. We evaluated morphometric patterns in wing length and bill length by age and sex, when possible, and assessed if wing shape has also changed during this time-period.

TRANSMISSION DYNAMICS OF IN ARCTIC FOXES (): A LONG-TERM MARK-RECAPTURE SEROLOGIC STUDY AT KARRAK LAKE, NUNAVUT, CANADA.

Transmission dynamics of , a parasite of importance for wildlife and human health, are enigmatic in the Arctic tundra, where free-ranging wild and domestic felid definitive hosts are absent and rarely observed, respectively. Through a multiyear mark-recapture study (2011-17), serosurveillance was conducted to investigate transmission of in Arctic foxes () in the Karrak Lake region, Nunavut, Canada. Sera from adult foxes and fox pups were tested for antibodies to by using serologic methods, including the indirect fluorescent antibody test, direct agglutination test, and modified agglutination test.

Integrated population models reveal local weather conditions are the key drivers of population dynamics in an aerial insectivore.

Changes to weather patterns under a warming climate are complex: while warmer temperatures are expected virtually worldwide, decreased mean precipitation is expected at mid-latitudes. Migratory birds depend on broad-scale weather patterns to inform timing of movements, but may be more susceptible to local weather patterns during sedentary periods. We constructed Bayesian integrated population models (IPMs) to assess whether continental or local weather effects best explained population dynamics in an environmentally sensitive aerial insectivorous bird, the tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), along a transcontinental gradient from British Columbia to Saskatchewan to New York, and tested whether population dynamics were synchronous among sites.

Long-term continental changes in wing length, but not bill length, of a long-distance migratory shorebird.

We compiled a >50-year record of morphometrics for semipalmated sandpipers (), a shorebird species with a Nearctic breeding distribution and intercontinental migration to South America. Our data included >57,000 individuals captured 1972-2015 at five breeding locations and three major stopover sites, plus 139 museum specimens collected in earlier decades. Wing length increased by ca.

Seasonal patterns in reproductive success of temperate-breeding birds: Experimental tests of the date and quality hypotheses.

For organisms in seasonal environments, individuals that breed earlier in the season regularly attain higher fitness than their late-breeding counterparts. Two primary hypotheses have been proposed to explain these patterns: The quality hypothesis contends that early breeders are of better phenotypic quality or breed on higher quality territories, whereas the date hypothesis predicts that seasonally declining reproductive success is a response to a seasonal deterioration in environmental quality. In birds, food availability is thought to drive deteriorating environmental conditions, but few experimental studies have demonstrated its importance while also controlling for parental quality.

Evidence for the exchange of blood parasites between North America and the Neotropics in blue-winged teal (Anas discors).

Blue-winged teal (Anas discors) are abundant, small-bodied dabbling ducks that breed throughout the prairies of the northcentral USA and central Canada and that winter in the southern USA and northern Neotropics. Given the migratory tendencies of this species, it is plausible that blue-winged teal may disperse avian pathogens, such as parasites causing avian malaria, between spatially distant areas. To test the hypothesis that blue-winged teal play a role in the exchange of blood parasites between North America and areas further south, we collected information on migratory tendencies of this species and sampled birds at spatially distant areas during breeding and non-breeding periods to diagnose and genetically characterize parasitic infections.

ESTIMATING TOXOPLASMA GONDII EXPOSURE IN ARCTIC FOXES (VULPES LAGOPUS) WHILE NAVIGATING THE IMPERFECT WORLD OF WILDLIFE SEROLOGY.

Although the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is ubiquitous in birds and mammals worldwide, the full suite of hosts and transmission routes is not completely understood, especially in the Arctic. Toxoplasma gondii occurrence in humans and wildlife can be high in Arctic regions, despite apparently limited opportunities for transmission of oocysts shed by felid definitive hosts. Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) are under increasing anthropogenic and ecologic pressure, leading to population declines in parts of their range.

Unexpected diversity of the cestode Echinococcus multilocularis in wildlife in Canada.

Echinococcus multilocularis is a zoonotic cestode with a distribution encompassing the northern hemisphere that causes alveolar hydatid disease in people and other aberrant hosts. E. multilocularis is not genetically uniform across its distribution, which may have implications for zoonotic transmission and pathogenicity.

Endoparasites in the feces of arctic foxes in a terrestrial ecosystem in Canada.

The parasites of arctic foxes in the central Canadian Arctic have not been well described. Canada's central Arctic is undergoing dramatic environmental change, which is predicted to cause shifts in parasite and wildlife species distributions, and trophic interactions, requiring that baselines be established to monitor future alterations. This study used conventional, immunological, and molecular fecal analysis techniques to survey the current gastrointestinal endoparasite fauna currently present in arctic foxes in central Nunavut, Canada.

Concentrations of cadmium, mercury and selenium in common eider ducks in the eastern Canadian arctic: influence of reproductive stage.

Concentrations and total organ content of mercury, selenium and cadmium, as well as liver, kidney and body mass were determined in female common eiders from 1997 to 2000 at the East Bay Migratory Bird Sanctuary in the eastern Canadian arctic. In 1997 and 1999, female eiders were collected during the pre-nesting period when they eat copious amounts of food and gain substantial weight in preparation for the rigours of nesting. In 1998 and 1999, female eiders were collected during the mid to late stages of the nesting period when they eat very little, if at all, and, as a consequence undergo dramatic weight loss.

Determination of the dietary habits of a Magdalenian woman from Saint-Germain-la-Rivière in southwestern France using stable isotopes.

To obtain direct dietary information, carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were measured from bone collagen acquired from the well-preserved skeleton of a Magdalenian woman from the site of Saint-Germain-la-Rivière in southwestern France. Comparison of delta13C and delta15N values of the human bone collagen to those of bone collagen from local herbivores and carnivores indicates that the woman's primary source of protein was the meat of large terrestrial herbivores. Application of a linear mixing model to the woman's isotopic signature indicates that (1) no significant marine-derived protein contributed to her average diet; (2) saiga antelope, which dominates the faunal remains at Saint-Germain-la-Rivière, was not the main source of terrestrial protein; and (3) her pattern of subsistence reflects a less opportunistic behavior than generally attributed to humans from this period.

Biomarker responses in nesting, common eiders in the Canadian arctic in relation to tissue cadmium, mercury and selenium concentrations.

Populations of many North American sea ducks are declining. Biomarkers may offer valuable insights regarding the health and fitness of sea ducks in relation to contaminant burdens. In this study we examined body condition, immune function, corticosterone stress response, liver glycogen levels and vitamin A status in relation to tissue concentrations of mercury, selenium and cadmium in female common eiders during the nesting period.

Physiological ramifications of habitat selection in territorial male ovenbirds: consequences of landscape fragmentation.

Since boreal forest fragments are of lower quality than contiguous forest for breeding Ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapillus), we predicted that competition for breeding sites in contiguous forest should lead to a greater prevalence of individuals in better condition in these habitats. We quantified male condition using morphological and hematological indices. Males in contiguous forest were larger than males in forest fragments and had higher hematocrits and mean corpuscular volumes, as well as a greater prevalence of polychromatic cells.