{"id":67736,"date":"2022-12-19T16:51:19","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T23:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=67736"},"modified":"2022-12-19T16:51:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T23:51:19","slug":"foster-bird-habitats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/foster-bird-habitats\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife disease ecologist launches project to help DoD monitor quality of bird habitats on military installations\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) owns military installations on nearly 27 million acres all over the country\u2014roughly equivalent in size to Virginia\u2014and oversees these lands through a network of natural resource managers. According to the DoD, the program supports \u201cthe military&#8217;s testing and training mission by protecting its biological resources\u2026 and working to ensure the long-term sustainability of our nation\u2019s priceless natural heritage.\u201d One of the program\u2019s top priorities is monitoring and maintaining populations of threatened and endangered species (TES) of birds\u2014especially those that eat insects and other arthropods like spiders, which have been particularly hard hit. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:-90,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:240,&quot;469777462&quot;:[720],&quot;469777927&quot;:[0],&quot;469777928&quot;:[8]}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Monitoring the quality of the birds\u2019 habitats, including their typical diets of insects, is one of the most critical ways scientists investigate declining bird populations. The tools the military land managers use to assess diets and habitats are crucial, but the current methods of measuring habitat quality related to the birds\u2019 food resources are time consuming, expensive and require specific biological expertise.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:-270,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:240,&quot;469777462&quot;:[720],&quot;469777927&quot;:[0],&quot;469777928&quot;:[8]}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">To this end, associate professor <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Jeff Foster<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> of Northern Arizona University\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nau.edu\/biological-sciences\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Department of Biological Sciences<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> and the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/pmi\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Pathogen and Microbiome Institute<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> (PMI) was recently awarded a grant by the DoD for a new study, \u201cDemonstration of Metabarcoding for Monitoring Bird Species Habitat Quality on DoD Installations.\u201d This three-year, $900,000 project will focus on five insectivorous species on four military sites:<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:-360,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:240,&quot;469777462&quot;:[720],&quot;469777927&quot;:[0],&quot;469777928&quot;:[8]}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"27\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Golden-cheeked Warbler (<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Setophaga chrysoparia<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">) and Black-capped Vireo (<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Vireo atricapilla<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">) at Fort Hood, Texas<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"27\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Least Bell\u2019s Vireo (<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Vireo bellii pusillus<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">) at Camp Pendleton, California<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"27\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Golden-winged Warbler (<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Vermivora chrysoptera<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">) at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"27\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" aria-setsize=\"-1\" data-aria-posinset=\"4\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Oahu Elepaio (<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Chasiempis ibidis<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">) at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Advanced approach focuses on bioinformatics, metabarcoding<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Metabarcoding is a technique that enables scientists to identify multiple species of plants or animals on a large scale based on rapid, high-throughput environmental DNA sequencing, which represents a huge technological step forward.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cWe\u2019ll assess habitat quality by using advanced genetic approaches to measure arthropod food resources in bird diets and from the vegetation on which these birds forage,\u201d Foster said. \u201cOur three primary objectives are to demonstrate the effectiveness of metabarcoding of bird diets and food resources; compare this genetic approach to conventional approaches that employ visual identification of arthropods using microscopes; provide user-friendly guidance to military land managers so they can understand the process and use this approach for monitoring in the future.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cThe bioinformatics can be challenging and daunting if you&#8217;re first getting into DNA metabarcoding, so we\u2019ll provide an established workflow that we can share with the land managers.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The team will collect fecal samples from the birds (bird poop) and arthropod samples, perform bioinformatic and chemical composition analyses, validate the technology by comparing it to conventional methods, develop guidance documents and lead hands-on technical workshops for the military land managers. This will be the most in-depth diet analysis of birds on military installations done to date.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Foster brings his expertise as well as that of PMI to the project. \u201cThere\u2019s much more to metabarcoding work than simply sequencing a gene. And here\u2019s where our team excels. We use tools developed over the past 13 years for analyzing the human microbiome. NAU professor <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Greg Caporaso<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> and his team at PMI have developed many of these tools, so we have considerable technical expertise in analyses, including understanding reference libraries of sequences and developing the analytical software.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:-90,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Collaborators include military scientists and undergraduate researcher<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Foster will work closely with co-principal investigators Jinelle Sperry and Aron Katz from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center\u2019s Construction Engineer Research Laboratory, as well as with collaborators at each of the installations.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">NAU undergraduate researcher <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Hannah Brosius<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> is working on the project with Foster and PMI researcher <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Alexandra Gibson<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. Brosius, who will be assisting with the lab work and analyses, said, &#8220;I&#8217;m excited about this project because the analysis of bird diets from feces will help us figure out why these endangered birds might be at risk. It\u2019s fun to be able to take a fecal sample from a species; you can learn a lot using DNA to understand how an animal lives.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">She is looking forward to her future as a veterinarian. &#8220;I\u2019m interested in lab work, which allows me to focus on a project and have results quickly. This research experience will be important for veterinary school and will expand my understanding of biology.&#8221;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_67740\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67740\" style=\"width: 392px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-67740\" src=\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Foster-graphic.png\" alt=\"Visual overview of the project, connecting birds and the arthropods in their diets to the habitat\" width=\"392\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2022\/12\/Foster-graphic.png 392w, https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2022\/12\/Foster-graphic-300x148.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 392px) 100vw, 392px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-67740\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Visual overview of the project, connecting birds and the arthropods in their diets to the habitat<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Project to benefit TES monitoring across DoD sites<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The project\u2019s outcomes will have multiple benefits that will help DoD land managers monitor threatened and endangered species.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:-360,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cIt\u2019s an effective and cost-efficient way to measure habitat quality, particularly as it relates to a key factor regulating insectivorous bird abundance\u2014arthropod food resources,\u201d Foster said. \u201cThe technology can be deployed at any DoD site where understanding diet or habitat quality is necessary for TES monitoring of vertebrate taxa. Population surveys can assess the current abundance and distribution of TES but determining the specific factors limiting their populations adds additional complexity. This method will not only give DoD natural resource managers the ability to distinguish poor versus high-quality habitat, but will provide critical information about restoration, habitat recovery from disturbance and a baseline of prey availability should arthropod populations decline regionally in the future.\u201d <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559737&quot;:-360,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In addition, numerous other bird species are on the list of DoD Priority Species and could benefit from this technology as well as other taxa such as amphibians, reptiles and small mammals.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-56007\" src=\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NAU_primary-281_3514-300x213.png\" alt=\"Northern Arizona University Logo\" width=\"131\" height=\"93\" srcset=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2019\/06\/NAU_primary-281_3514-300x213.png 300w, https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2019\/06\/NAU_primary-281_3514-768x546.png 768w, https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2019\/06\/NAU_primary-281_3514-600x426.png 600w, https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2019\/06\/NAU_primary-281_3514.png 905w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 131px) 100vw, 131px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Kerry Bennett | University Marketing<\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"search-results-excerpt-link\" href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/foster-bird-habitats\/\">The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) owns military installations on nearly 27 million acres all over the country\u2014roughly equivalent in size to Virginia\u2014and oversees these lands through a network of natural resource managers. According to the DoD, the program supports \u201cthe military&#8217;s testing and training mission by protecting its biological resources\u2026 and working to ensure&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":67737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}