Intraspecific Variation in Functional Traits of Birds in the Context of Ecological Release
Brynn Fricke and Mia Keriazes
Photo by Mia Keriazes
Project Information
PI
Dr. Scott K. Robinson
Institution
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Duration
April 2024 - May 2025
Research Focus
Under the guidance of Orlando Acevedo-Charry, Dr. Scott K. Robinson, and Dr. Miguel Acevedo, Mia and I will determine the difference between functional trait spaces of island and mainland populations using the genera Euphonia, Coereba (see picture on left), and Coccyzus. Museum specimens from these genera will be measured for different aspects of their morphology, including dietary, dispersal, and foraging morphologies. Using these measurements, we will compare the functional trait spaces to see if predation release, interspecific competition, or both are released from the island populations.
Context
Multiple ecological release studies focus on interspecific variation between functional traits and use mean values of these traits, so we are attempting to explore this gap in research to include intraspecific variation for more comprehensive analysis. Island birds face a multitude of challenges, such as disease, species introduction, and climate change, so a better understanding of these island populations can assist in conservation.
Photo by Mia Keriazes
Project Responsibilities
Throughout this project, we will be measuring specimens in the Florida Museum of Natural History and collecting this data to be processed through R. In R, we will create graphs of functional trait spaces of traits that we measure, and we will run statistical analyses for the strength of the difference between the spaces. We will also be comparing our data to the AVONET dataset on our birds to see the averages of the functional traits we measure.
