27 SEP 2018 - 18:01 CET

Congratulations to Paula Machin just held her PhD defence at the University of Gronningen and got her Doctorate Degree with a thesis entitled:

A golden life: Ecology of waders in low Lapland.

Paula has been supervised by T. Piersma, R.H.G. Klaasen & J. Aguirre.

Climate change is affecting ecosystems and species all over the world and scientists are on a race to try to discover those effects before is too late. Arctic ecosystems are believed to be extraordinary vulnerable to climate warming, especially as a small increase in temperature is expected to have relatively large impact (coined ‘arctic amplification’). Understanding the ecology of inhabitants of arctic ecosystems and effects of climate change is therefore urgent.  
She studied the breeding ecology of the Golden Plover in subarctic Lapland, in Sweden. More specifically she looked at the habitats the chicks used, their diet and food availability, as well as their growth and survival. In addition, she looked at the flight feather moult of the adults, and, in order to study the species’ whole annual cycle, also their migration pattern. She concluded that effects of climate change differ between annual cycle stages; it generally seems to negatively impact plovers during the breeding season but might benefit plovers during the winter.
Her study increased our knowledge of Golden Plovers and other shorebirds breeding in the Subarctic, which helps to predict effects of climate change, and developing conservation measures.