In a recently published study, Western graduate student Yanju Ma and her collaborators in Western’s Department of Biology concluded that migratory songbirds with higher concentrations of mercury in their bodies were less likely to return from their migrations to southerly wintering locations.
The discovery was made after Ma and her team examined mercury concentrations and isotopes of hydrogen in tail feathers of migratory songbirds sampled at the Long Point Bird Observatory in southern Ontario. Western’s world-class research platforms were essential to this study as the Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR), home to the world’s only hypobaric climatic wind tunnel for bird flight, its affiliated stable isotope facility and the Biotron Centre for Experimental Climate Change Research were utilized by Ma and her collaborators.
