David Winkler, Cornell University
Professor
Ithaca, New York
dww4@cornell.edu
Office:
(607) 254-4216
Expert In
Bio/Research
In my lab, among many other student-initiated projects, we explore:
1) How changes in climate are affecting Tree Swallows and their flying insect prey. We are altering nest-box temperatures in a 25-box sensor-node network that includes network-controlled Peltier devices, web-cams, RFID r...
Click to Expand >>
1) How changes in climate are affecting Tree Swallows and their flying insect prey. We are altering nest-box temperatures in a 25-box sensor-node network that includes network-controlled Peltier devices, web-cams, RFID r...
Click to Expand >>
Bio/Research
In my lab, among many other student-initiated projects, we explore:
1) How changes in climate are affecting Tree Swallows and their flying insect prey. We are altering nest-box temperatures in a 25-box sensor-node network that includes network-controlled Peltier devices, web-cams, RFID readers and thermocouples. These experiments are allowing us to explore the effects of temperature changes on patterns of parental care and offspring development. And we are exploring the effects of environmental temperatures on the flight behavior of insects to better understand the connection between weather, food availability and patterns of nestling mortality.
2) How the increasing age of birds affects their parental abilities and how reproductive effort affects aging. Using our large population of known-aged Tree Swallows, we are conducting (with collaborators Carol and David Vleck) detailed studies of telomere dynamics and the effects of various biochemical processes on telomeres in known-aged individuals in the wild.
3) Large-scale life-history variation of Tachycineta swallows with comparative work in the Golondrinas de las Americas project, a network of biologists studying the comparative breeding biology and ecology of Tachycinetas from southern Argentina to northern Canada. Each year, we send interns to field sites where they work with our collaborators using standardized protocols to gather information and monitor the breeding biology and ecology of these birds while honing their abilities in international collaboration.
4) Patterns of movement of birds and their causes, working with collaborators in Cornell engineering and the Lab of Ornithology to develop new technologies for monitoring movements at all spatial scales and gather and telemeter information on both the environments and internal states of the birds.
Click to Shrink <<
1) How changes in climate are affecting Tree Swallows and their flying insect prey. We are altering nest-box temperatures in a 25-box sensor-node network that includes network-controlled Peltier devices, web-cams, RFID readers and thermocouples. These experiments are allowing us to explore the effects of temperature changes on patterns of parental care and offspring development. And we are exploring the effects of environmental temperatures on the flight behavior of insects to better understand the connection between weather, food availability and patterns of nestling mortality.
2) How the increasing age of birds affects their parental abilities and how reproductive effort affects aging. Using our large population of known-aged Tree Swallows, we are conducting (with collaborators Carol and David Vleck) detailed studies of telomere dynamics and the effects of various biochemical processes on telomeres in known-aged individuals in the wild.
3) Large-scale life-history variation of Tachycineta swallows with comparative work in the Golondrinas de las Americas project, a network of biologists studying the comparative breeding biology and ecology of Tachycinetas from southern Argentina to northern Canada. Each year, we send interns to field sites where they work with our collaborators using standardized protocols to gather information and monitor the breeding biology and ecology of these birds while honing their abilities in international collaboration.
4) Patterns of movement of birds and their causes, working with collaborators in Cornell engineering and the Lab of Ornithology to develop new technologies for monitoring movements at all spatial scales and gather and telemeter information on both the environments and internal states of the birds.
Click to Shrink <<