NWO TOP grant for research into bird tracking tools

11-11-2011   Theunis Piersma’s research group has been awarded a TOP grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for the development and application of individual tracking tools for all relevant temporal and spatial scales, so providing global or very specific local data sets.

Waders, having long legs, can easily be ringed so that individual birds can be recognized, and they live in open biotopes where it is easy to track them. The Netherlands with its mudflats and meadows is a paradise for waders. The flourishing field of ecological research into bird migration is now slowed down because the colour marks have a limited resolution, as this method depends on sightings of colour-marked birds. Advanced tracking tools should therefore be adapted and made suitable for small birds. Three tracking systems will be combined in a project studying Black-tailed Godwit annual cycles in order to be able to record  and interpret continental and intercontinental migration (satellite tag), individual life histories (geolocators) and local spatial and social processes (differential time of arrival, DTOA).

The TOP grant comes to € 722,000 and is available for work done at the University of Groningen and at NIOZ. The technical development of the tracking tools as well as adapting and fitting them to waders will take place at NIOZ (where technicians and a postdoc will be taken on). At the University of Groningen, the three tracking systems will be used in combination as part of a new PhD research project on Black-tailed Godwits.