Next Monday, February 13, will be the next monthly meeting of the Cayuga Bird
Club. Jennifer Walsh-Emond, PhD, an NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Fuller
Evolutionary Biology program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, will give her
presentation, "How Adaptations to Tidal Marshes Shape Differences between
Saltmarsh and Nelson's Sparrows: Lessons from the Field and Laboratory". The
harsh conditions found in tidal marshes make them suitable breeding homes for
only a few bird species that are particularly well adapted to their challenging
environmental conditions. In my work, I use salt marsh-adapted sparrows as a
kind of natural experiment to explore how bird species adapt to new habitats.
Saltmarsh and Nelson's sparrows are two recently diverged, hybridizing tidal
marsh specialists that inhabit marshes along the coast of New England. Although
these birds appear superficially similar, they have fascinating differences in
habitat affinity, morphology, genetics, and behavior that reflect their
associations with salt marsh environments over evolutionary time. These birds
are increasingly threatened by the loss of salt marshes caused by habitat
alteration and rising sea levels; my work helps place these threats in a
broader evolutionary context by showing how these species likely arose through
their different adaptations to coastal-upland habitats, which in turn led to
their reproductive isolation.The meeting will be held at the Cornell Laboratory
of Ornithology. Doors open at 7:00 pm and there will be cookies and
conversation starting at 7:15. Bird club business begins at 7:30 pm followed by
the presentation. All are welcome.Members are invited to join Jennifer for
dinner at Aladdin's in Collegetown just before the meeting at 5:30 p.m. Please
RSVP to Colleen Richards at cl...@juno.com by noon Monday so reservations can
be made.Colleen RichardsCorresponding SecretaryCayuga Bird Club
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