Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PAST (Paleoenvironmental Assessment of climate and other STressors on long-term dynamics of waterbird populations.)
Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31
This project is mainly focused on the study of how past droughts and other climatic stressors have affected long-term dynamics of bird populations using paleolimnological approaches.
Due to climate change, different areas and biomes of the world are being affected in such different manners. As an example, areas from the south of Spain are currently suffering the impact of longer periods of drought while lakes situated in the Arctic are strongly affected by shorter ice-cover periods.
On the other hand, human activities have affected aquatic ecosystems in both direct and indirect ways, being them much more noticeable after the Industrial Revolution. Since inland waters of these regions are important habitats for waterbirds, their good conditions are essential for the survival of these animals.
Lakes’ sediments act as archives of information of past conditions, so by studying them we may be able to reconstruct the past environmental conditions as well as the long-term changes in bird populations. On this way, we can link both variables and identifying how different stressors affected to waterbirds in the past and, therefore, to speculate possible future trends for these and other species according with the expected climatic conditions.
In addition, inland waters are of great importance for societies since they provide water resources and are essential for many recreation activities such as swimming, boating, or fishing. In addition, it is well-known that waterbirds had been and are of great importance for human communities around the world for their eggs, down and meat. For all that, knowing the past conditions of these ecosystems and bird populations are essential for being able to understand the present and future changes and for the implementation of measures for their mitigation.
The objectives of this project are:
1.Trace the long-term environmental changes occurring before and after the Industrial Revolution by using climatic records.
2.Track long-term changes in bird populations in different aquatic ecosystems by using paleolimnological techniques, with a focus on assessing the causes of the changes in the populations.
3.Identify which bird groups were more affected by droughts.
4.Provide long-term scenarios of changes in bird populations and use these data to better inform predictions about future changes linked to ongoing climate warming.
Due to climate change, different areas and biomes of the world are being affected in such different manners. As an example, areas from the south of Spain are currently suffering the impact of longer periods of drought while lakes situated in the Arctic are strongly affected by shorter ice-cover periods.
On the other hand, human activities have affected aquatic ecosystems in both direct and indirect ways, being them much more noticeable after the Industrial Revolution. Since inland waters of these regions are important habitats for waterbirds, their good conditions are essential for the survival of these animals.
Lakes’ sediments act as archives of information of past conditions, so by studying them we may be able to reconstruct the past environmental conditions as well as the long-term changes in bird populations. On this way, we can link both variables and identifying how different stressors affected to waterbirds in the past and, therefore, to speculate possible future trends for these and other species according with the expected climatic conditions.
In addition, inland waters are of great importance for societies since they provide water resources and are essential for many recreation activities such as swimming, boating, or fishing. In addition, it is well-known that waterbirds had been and are of great importance for human communities around the world for their eggs, down and meat. For all that, knowing the past conditions of these ecosystems and bird populations are essential for being able to understand the present and future changes and for the implementation of measures for their mitigation.
The objectives of this project are:
1.Trace the long-term environmental changes occurring before and after the Industrial Revolution by using climatic records.
2.Track long-term changes in bird populations in different aquatic ecosystems by using paleolimnological techniques, with a focus on assessing the causes of the changes in the populations.
3.Identify which bird groups were more affected by droughts.
4.Provide long-term scenarios of changes in bird populations and use these data to better inform predictions about future changes linked to ongoing climate warming.
I started my project on September 1st 2021. First, I attended the course BIOL 822 - Long Term Environmental Change taught by Professor John Smol with the aim to increase my theorical knowledge in paleolimnology. In addition, I completed a microscope workshop given by Dr. Kathleen Rühland and the Workplace Hazardous Material Information System and Health and Safety Awareness training sessions for increasing my skills in the laboratory.
In October 2021, I went for sampling to the Dorset area with the main objective of learning how to take sediment samples from deep lakes by using sediment cores as well as how to section them and process the samples obtained. After that, I started working with samples obtained from SGang Gwaay (Zvezdin, A., Álvarez-Manzaneda, I. et al., one paper in preparation and other submitted for publication) and from Cape Dorset (Bosch, J., Álvarez-Manzaneda, I. et al., submitted for publication) by leading the identification of the diatoms present in the sediment.
In August 2022 I performed the sampling of 8 different ponds situated on different islands in Lake Winnipeg and St Martin Lake (Manitoba). I have been working with these samples since then and the identification of the diatoms was ended in July 2023. I lead the identification of the diatoms as well as the writing of at least one manuscript that is already in preparation.
In addition, I carried out two samplings in ponds located on different islands of the province of Nova Scotia (September 2022 and June 2023), by leading the last sampling and the identification of the diatoms of all the samples taken. The results of this research will be published as soon as we have all the variables measured.
While I was working at PEARL, we started a research based on the application of paleolimnological approaches in bird nests (something never done before) and which has shown very new and promising results in conservation biology: two papers in preparation.
Regarding dissemination activities, I participated in Science is Wonderful in November 2021, where I shared my research with primary and secondary school students. I also participated in the radio program Cambio Climático of CanalSur Radio from Andalucía, where I talked about the problems associated with climate change in Canada. In addition, during the field work carried out in Nova Scotia in September 2022, I was aboard the SOI ship where I shared my work in different activities that SOI organized for communicating science and reaching broad audiences (students, members of the Canadian Government, NGOs, etc.). Finally, I have a webpage where I share in both Spanish and English my latest progresses in research (https://ialvarezmanzaneda.weebly.com).
Some of the results of my stay at Queen’s University have been presented in 5 international conferences as oral communications.
In October 2021, I went for sampling to the Dorset area with the main objective of learning how to take sediment samples from deep lakes by using sediment cores as well as how to section them and process the samples obtained. After that, I started working with samples obtained from SGang Gwaay (Zvezdin, A., Álvarez-Manzaneda, I. et al., one paper in preparation and other submitted for publication) and from Cape Dorset (Bosch, J., Álvarez-Manzaneda, I. et al., submitted for publication) by leading the identification of the diatoms present in the sediment.
In August 2022 I performed the sampling of 8 different ponds situated on different islands in Lake Winnipeg and St Martin Lake (Manitoba). I have been working with these samples since then and the identification of the diatoms was ended in July 2023. I lead the identification of the diatoms as well as the writing of at least one manuscript that is already in preparation.
In addition, I carried out two samplings in ponds located on different islands of the province of Nova Scotia (September 2022 and June 2023), by leading the last sampling and the identification of the diatoms of all the samples taken. The results of this research will be published as soon as we have all the variables measured.
While I was working at PEARL, we started a research based on the application of paleolimnological approaches in bird nests (something never done before) and which has shown very new and promising results in conservation biology: two papers in preparation.
Regarding dissemination activities, I participated in Science is Wonderful in November 2021, where I shared my research with primary and secondary school students. I also participated in the radio program Cambio Climático of CanalSur Radio from Andalucía, where I talked about the problems associated with climate change in Canada. In addition, during the field work carried out in Nova Scotia in September 2022, I was aboard the SOI ship where I shared my work in different activities that SOI organized for communicating science and reaching broad audiences (students, members of the Canadian Government, NGOs, etc.). Finally, I have a webpage where I share in both Spanish and English my latest progresses in research (https://ialvarezmanzaneda.weebly.com).
Some of the results of my stay at Queen’s University have been presented in 5 international conferences as oral communications.
The outgoing phase of my project has been very productive. I have obtained promising results being remarkable those that show the usefulness of applying paleolimnological approaches on nests (eider ducks in particular) for tracking long-term bird populations and environmental changes.
During the actual phase of the project, I expect to be able to sample ponds with high presence of waterbirds situated in the Mediterranean region with the aim to track their long-term changes and the environmental conditions or human actions (such as hunting) that promoted them. These novel approaches have never been used in areas outside Canada but due to the promising results obtained thus far, such data from different areas that are and will be affected by climatic stressors in such different manners and with different bird species will be critical for understanding how their populations change with environmental change. The impact of this project will be of great importance for conservation biologists regarding the history of bird populations changes as well as for policy makers that could design more appropriate future management strategies to mitigate the negative effects of droughts (e.g. by banning the exploitation of aquatic reservoirs used for irrigation) and to protect areas more likely to suffer intense floods.
During the actual phase of the project, I expect to be able to sample ponds with high presence of waterbirds situated in the Mediterranean region with the aim to track their long-term changes and the environmental conditions or human actions (such as hunting) that promoted them. These novel approaches have never been used in areas outside Canada but due to the promising results obtained thus far, such data from different areas that are and will be affected by climatic stressors in such different manners and with different bird species will be critical for understanding how their populations change with environmental change. The impact of this project will be of great importance for conservation biologists regarding the history of bird populations changes as well as for policy makers that could design more appropriate future management strategies to mitigate the negative effects of droughts (e.g. by banning the exploitation of aquatic reservoirs used for irrigation) and to protect areas more likely to suffer intense floods.