Presentation
One-third of Norway’s bird species are currently threatened with extinction, according to the Norwegian Red List. Perhaps even more insidious are documented population declines in some of Norway’s ‘common’ species. The threat of climate change is particularly acute for wildlife in arctic and alpine habitats, where changes are more extreme and happening more rapidly. While species are generally expected to shift their ranges northward and upslope in response to changing climates, actual measured shifts in species distributions have been mixed and sometimes unexpected. In this talk, I will present our work focused on the occupancy dynamics of a common and iconic alpine bird, the bluethroat (Luscinia svecica). We leveraged opportunistic citizen science data from across the Fennoscandian peninsula over the last 45 years (including over 900,000 observations) to test the hypothesis that the breeding distribution of bluethroats has shifted towards higher latitudes and higher elevations to track climate change. I will also touch on some of our ongoing projects using bioacoustics to study local-scale factors impacting bluethroats, which have high potential for forging collaborations with data scientists.
Speaker
Kristin Brunk joined IBV/CEES as a postdoc in January 2024. Her research lies at the intersection of conservation, quantitative ecology, and behavioural ecology, and the questions that most interest her are those with implications both for ecological theory and for the sustainable management of natural resources. Brunk's projects at UiO are increasingly data-driven, including using citizen science data and bioacoustics (using sound to study wildlife) to investigate regional patterns and local processes.
Program
11:30 – Doors open and lunch is served
12:00 – "Data-driven ecology: Opportunistic citizen science data reveal shifts in the breeding distribution of a common alpine bird across the Fennoscandian peninsula", by Kristin Brunk (Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis)
This event is open for all students, PhD candidates, postdocs, and everyone else who is interested in the topic. No registration needed.
About the seminar series
Once a month, dScience will invite you to join us for lunch and professional talks at the Science Library. In addition to these, we will serve lunch in our lounge in Kristine Bonnevies house every Thursday. Due to limited space (40 people), this will be first come, first served. See how to find us here.
Our lounge can also be booked by PhDs and Postdocs on a regular basis, whether it is for a meeting or just to hang out – we have fresh coffee all day long!