The Ecology & Conservation of Animals in Seasonal Environments
Research in our lab focuses on the population dynamics, behaviour, conservation, and evolution of animals in seasonal environments, especially migratory birds and butterflies. We address a variety of topics including effects of climate change and habitat loss throughout the annual cycle of seabirds and songbirds, the role of migration networks and seasonal interactions in predicting changes in population size, the development of optimal conservation plans for a range of migratory species, the costs and benefits of migration, and life-history trade-offs between different periods of the annual cycle. Our research integrates behavioural and demographic field research with landscape ecology, theoretical and empirical modeling, and biogeochemistry. We conduct field research in a number of locations including the BC Pacific coast, Costa Rica, Algonquin Park, the Bay of Fundy, the eastern Canadian Arctic, Long Point Provincial Park, and the University of Guelph campus.
Click here for the departmental webpage
Norris Lab
Department of Integrative Biology,
University of Guelph
Recent papers from the lab:
New evidence showing that Monarch butterflies do not possess an internal map to navigate to their Mexican wintering grounds.
Mouritsen et al. 2013. An experimental
displacement and over 50 years of
tagged-recoveries show that monarch
butterflies are not true navigators. In
press: Proc Natl Acad Sci USA
-----------------------------
Our new experimental fruit fly study shows that carry-over effects and seasonality can increase the long-term stability of populations.
Betini et al. 2013. Carry-over effects,
sequential density dependence and the
dynamics of populations in a seasonal
environment. Proc Roy Soc Lond B
280: 20130110.
Recent lab news:
April 2013: Graduate student Rachael
Derbyshire interview on CBC’s Quirks
& Quarks about our recent work on
monarch navigation. This research was
also featured in Nature, the Globe &
Mail, CBC.ca, and Discovery News.
Congratulations to Gustavo Betini for
winning the Integrative Biology
Distinguished Speaker Award! He
gave a great departmental seminar to a
packed audeience on April 4.
March 2013: Congratulations to
Rachael Derbyshire for being awarded
a Garfield Weston Fellowship from the
Wildlife Conservation Society and a
Bergstrom Award from AFO!
February 2013: A recent study on the
cultural evolution of song in Savannah
sparrows is featured in the Toronto Star
January 2013: Collaborators from
Western, Acadia & Guelph are awarded
a LEF Grant from the Canadian
Foundation for Innovation for tracking
migratory birds. See Guelph news story
here.
Kent Island, Bay of Fundy
Algonquin Park, ON
Marbled murrelet, coastal BC
Gray jays, Algonquin Park, ON
Savannah sparrow, Kent Island, NB
For visitors:
The Norris Lab is located on the 2nd floor of the New Science Complex (Room 2403/2404) on the east side of
Gordon St., University of Guelph campus. It is about 45 minutes west of the Toronto airport.
Click here for campus map
Click here for visitor parking locations
Click here for the University of Guelph homepage
This website was created July 2010.
All content copyright Ryan Norris.