Thank you for participating in the Food Web Project! This unique project could not be done without the generous help of each of you.
I'm a PhD student with University of Delaware (UD) and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) investigating how non-native trees and urbanization affect food resources, particularly insects, for breeding birds. My advisers include both Dr. Pete Marra from SMBC and Dr. Doug Tallamy, an entomologist at UD. I work within Neighborhood Nestwatch (http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/research/neighborhood_nestwatch/),
a Smithsonian citizen science program that has been occurring yearly since 2002.
As you might know, not every backyard is alike. Yards can be different in both the amount of trees and shrubs and the species that are planted. Trees and shrubs support many insects, like caterpillars and spiders, that in turn provide important food for our backyard birds. In this study, I want to see if some trees and shrubs are better able at providing food for breeding birds than others. To do this, I study the Carolina Chickadee, a common backyard bird, to see where they're breeding, what they’re eating, and how well they raise their young. I provide nest boxes all over the DC, MD and VA to attract these birds to nest inside.
I'm a PhD student with University of Delaware (UD) and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) investigating how non-native trees and urbanization affect food resources, particularly insects, for breeding birds. My advisers include both Dr. Pete Marra from SMBC and Dr. Doug Tallamy, an entomologist at UD. I work within Neighborhood Nestwatch (http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/research/neighborhood_nestwatch/),
a Smithsonian citizen science program that has been occurring yearly since 2002.
As you might know, not every backyard is alike. Yards can be different in both the amount of trees and shrubs and the species that are planted. Trees and shrubs support many insects, like caterpillars and spiders, that in turn provide important food for our backyard birds. In this study, I want to see if some trees and shrubs are better able at providing food for breeding birds than others. To do this, I study the Carolina Chickadee, a common backyard bird, to see where they're breeding, what they’re eating, and how well they raise their young. I provide nest boxes all over the DC, MD and VA to attract these birds to nest inside.
Even if I am unable to collect supplementary data on your nesting pair, of course, you are more than welcome to submit data on any cavity nesters that use your current nest boxes and we will be able to use that data in our analyses. As the breeding season gets closer, I will email more information to each participant.
Thanks again for your interest!If you have any questions, please contact me at [email protected]
What's a Food Web?
The main objective of this study is to determine how non-native (exotic) plants are impacting higher animals in the food chain. A food (or trophic web, as scientists like to call it) refers to the way that energy flows through the ecosystem from producers (things that make food; plants) to consumers (animals that consume food). Consumers can be low in the food web if they directly eat producers (like a caterpillar) or high if they eat other consumers. For example, a hawk would be the highest level because they eat consumers (birds and small mammals), and there are few or no organisms that eat them.
To protect themselves, plants have evolved special chemical defenses in their leaves to deter herbivory from insects. However, over time some caterpillars have evolved their own protection against these defenses, resulting in only a select few insect species able to feed on a particular species of plant. One great example of this is the relationship between Monarch butterflies and Milkweed plants, the only type of plants monarch caterpillars will eat. What is not as well known is that most insects that eat plants are specialized plant feeders to some degree, one type or one group of plants.
As areas become urbanized and developed, there are drastic changes in the abundance and diversity of plants. In addition, many homeowners specifically landscape their properties for aesthetic or ecological properties by way of wildlife habitat. The loss of a particular species of plant, and/or replacement by a related non-native species, may result in changes to the community of animals that rely on this food source. This suggests that insect eating birds (like our chickadees) may in part be negatively effected by non-native plants, by way of reducing available food resources. This, however, has not yet been explicitly tested, so with the help of Neighborhood Nestwatch participants we will begin to address these questions.
To protect themselves, plants have evolved special chemical defenses in their leaves to deter herbivory from insects. However, over time some caterpillars have evolved their own protection against these defenses, resulting in only a select few insect species able to feed on a particular species of plant. One great example of this is the relationship between Monarch butterflies and Milkweed plants, the only type of plants monarch caterpillars will eat. What is not as well known is that most insects that eat plants are specialized plant feeders to some degree, one type or one group of plants.
As areas become urbanized and developed, there are drastic changes in the abundance and diversity of plants. In addition, many homeowners specifically landscape their properties for aesthetic or ecological properties by way of wildlife habitat. The loss of a particular species of plant, and/or replacement by a related non-native species, may result in changes to the community of animals that rely on this food source. This suggests that insect eating birds (like our chickadees) may in part be negatively effected by non-native plants, by way of reducing available food resources. This, however, has not yet been explicitly tested, so with the help of Neighborhood Nestwatch participants we will begin to address these questions.