Harvard Forest Research

Understanding avian change through time through comparisons of historic and contemporary breeding birds in central Mass

Principal Investigator: Scott Edwards
Harvard University: May 01 2008 - Dec 31 2009:

Abstract:
The Ornithology Department, Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University is interested in initiating some work at the Harvard Forest which would involve sampling low numbers of common species in order to preserve modern research material to compare to the historical collections already housed in the collection. Our work would examine both morphological and molecular changes in local species and also serve to preserve a record of our current avifauna. The microevolutionary changes in local breeding populations of birds over decades and centuries is a problem that cannot be examined using many museum collections, because most modern material comes from birds captured or salvaged during migration. This study would help solve that issue by preserving samples of local breeding species and thereby enabling comparisons with our abundant series of such species from the 19th century. All relevant state and federal permits have already been obtained for this work.: