Source: Brett 1xbet online sports betting 785-532-0120, bsanderc@1xbet online sports betting edu
News release prepared by: Stephanie Jacques, 785-532-0101, sjacques@1xbet online sports betting edu

Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE NOME FOR PROFESSOR RESEARCHING MIGRANT SHOREBIRDS

MANHATTAN -- The small town of Nome on the western coast of Alaska is best known to the world as the finish line for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. But for Kansas State University's Brett 1xbet online sports betting , associate professor of biology, the area has far more importance.

Every spring thousands of migratory shorebirds fly more than 6,000 miles from the equator to Alaska to breed, but little is known about how these 1xbet online sports betting are being affected by environmental changes in the Arctic.

Nearly 0,000 in funding from the Nongame Partner Program of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the Arctic Natural Science Office of Polar Programs through the National Science Foundation, will allow 1xbet online sports betting to evaluate changes in the population biology of two species of long-distance migrant shorebirds, the semipalmated sandpiper and the western sandpiper.

&1xbet online sports betting ;I think of them as the canary in the coal mine,&1xbet online sports betting ; Sandercock said. &1xbet online sports betting ;They are the species that are probably going to show impacts of environmental change first. In terms of wildlife conservation, it is absolutely amazing to see the enormous pulse of migratory birds moving synchronously in large flocks, although these same traits may make them vulnerable to human activities.&1xbet online sports betting ;

When he began his career at K-State, 1xbet online sports betting wanted to start a local research program, so a large portion of his current research is on grassland birds in Kansas. But his affection for the tundra, arctic weather and northern wildlife take him back to Alaska. As part of his doctoral dissertation research from 1993-1996, 1xbet online sports betting spent time among the tundra ridges and fresh water ponds of Nome, studying sandpiper behavior.

&1xbet online sports betting ;Part of my heart has always been in the North,&1xbet online sports betting ; Sandercock said. &1xbet online sports betting ;For me it's a chance to go back to the familiar areas and beautiful country where I worked in the past.&1xbet online sports betting ;

The new funding allows 1xbet online sports betting to build on the data from his graduate research and to continue his research and teaching duties during the school year at K-State.

&1xbet online sports betting ;From the first four years, we know that the birds show good site fidelity,&1xbet online sports betting ; Sandercock said. &1xbet online sports betting ;However, there has never been baseline data for this type of study before because other researchers' previous plots in the Arctic have sometimes been affected by the expansion of surrounding towns. My plots, though, remain unchanged, so we can actually go back and look at birds with the same study protocols that I used 15 years ago. We can make direct comparisons.&1xbet online sports betting ;

The grants also give 1xbet online sports betting the opportunity to purchase technology and continue to develop the Arctic Shorebird Demographic Network. This is an international program of researchers, which 1xbet online sports betting and his colleagues have recruited to collect data on long-distance migrant shorebirds at Arctic sites across Alaska and northern Canada.

&1xbet online sports betting ;There is some evidence of certain groups of European birds that suggests that long-distance migrants may have greater trouble adapting to environmental change, and some of those species are declining faster than short-distance migrants,&1xbet online sports betting ; Sandercock said.

Among the high-tech devices that will be used during the new research are geo-locator tags, which measure latitude and longitude throughout the bird's migration. To track the complete migratory movements during the course of the year, the tags will be attached to the birds at the breeding site and recovered from birds returning the following year, 1xbet online sports betting said.

Analysis of migration patterns, and how they might differ between the two species, and among sex and age classes, will enable 1xbet online sports betting to explore the different strategies the birds are using, and how those strategies might be impacted by environmental change.

&1xbet online sports betting ;I think these birds have an intrinsic value as a migratory species,&1xbet online sports betting ; Sandercock said. &1xbet online sports betting ;Potentially they are the ones that are going to be signals of environmental change because they have less flexibility in timing their migration. Trying to understand their strategies, both in the Arctic breeding grounds and throughout migration, may help us predict or mitigate effects of environmental change in other species.&1xbet online sports betting ;