Department Systems Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modelling

This project studies the interactions of terrestrial avian predators and their aquatic prey, fish. The goal is to learn about the influence of abiotic variables and biotic interactions on the spatial dynamics of piscivorous birds (such as Grey heron, Ardea cinerea) and the fish species they prey upon (e.g., Brown trout). Piscivorous birds move between different aquatic food webs, and some of their prey species are migratory fish (such as Brown trout, Salmo trutta) that move between streams and lakes according to trade-offs between opportunities to grow and predation risk. We are interested in how fish densities influence the movement and foraging behavior of predatory birds, and how, in turn, predation pressure from birds influences the migration behavior and population dynamics of fish. This project thus integrates movement and behavioral ecology with predator-prey interactions across aquatic-terrestrial ecosystem boundaries.

With a focus on modelling, the project will leverage multi-year datasets on the spatial distribution and size of bird colonies and camera trap data on bird foraging behavior, combined with datasets on stream fish abundance, the movement of tagged individual fish and fish tags recovered from bird colonies.

Catherine Graham

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL