This Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement award will provide funding for the PI and Co-PI from the University of Florida to conduct studies at field sites in Bolivia and Brazil. The study is building upon a prior NSF funded workshop: NSF INT-0313429 "U.S.-Chile Workshop: First Symposium on Austral Migration", Puerto Varas, Chile, 5-11 October 2003. The research tests a theory about the proximate causes of bird migration by taking advantage of an unusual feature of austral migrants: the large variation in migratory behaviors within populations. Because this theory has been developed and tested on the same set of north temperate species, this work constitutes its first true independent test.
The proposed study will promote international collaboration between Argentinean, Bolivian and Brazilian researchers. The study will lay the groundwork by field-testing several important components of the scheme, by involving senior collaborators in these other countries, and by training students in field techniques. The Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado (MHNNKM) in Santa Cruz, Bolivia will be the primary collaborative institution. Bolivian participants in this study include the co-PI (who has dual citizenship in Bolivia and the U.S.), two B.S. students from the local university in Bolivia, and a female researcher from the MHNNKM. All will be at the study site full-time.
