US-Brazil workshop on establishing Aves Internacionales, the first network on bird migration research in South America: Campos do Jordao, Brazil, August 2010

University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR

Investigators

Abstract

Because migratory birds travel across political and cultural boundaries, their study and conservation requires collaboration between countries and cultures. Such collaboration is now commonplace in the Northern Hemisphere, but it has lagged behind in South America due to obstacles in communication, lack of standardization, and lack of funds. To overcome these obstacles and catalyze international research on bird migration in South America, this award supports a workshop to form the Aves Internacionales Network (in Portuguese: "Rede Aves Internacionais"; in Spanish: "Red Aves Internacionales"). The workshop, which is co-organized by Miguel Marini of the Universidade de Brasilia (Brazil), Victor Cueto of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Ana Maria Mamani of the Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado (Bolivia), will coincide with the 25th International Ornithological Congress (IOC) in Campos do Jordão, Brazil, in August 2010. Research topics generated by workshop participants will center around two interrelated goals: (1) developing hypotheses on bird migration in South America and collecting data to test those hypotheses, and (2) testing hypotheses on how bird migration differs in South and North America. In combination, these two goals will provide a new, geographically broader perspective about how and why New World birds migrate. This workshop aims to develop a research agenda based on questions that cannot be answered by any single research group, but which require international collaboration across North and South America. Participants will be drawn from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and the United States, and will include active members of MIGRATE, a NSF-funded program to study migration in the Northern Hemisphere. Many of the workshop participants will be students or young professionals, personally committed to fostering long-term partnerships with international colleagues. The workshop will contribute to knowledge about socially relevant issues such as climate change, land-use patterns, and the avian spread of diseases, and will also generate a series of education-based activities in both North and South America.