Université du Québec à Rimouski
M.Sc. candidate
Supervisor: François Vézina
Kyle Elliott
Oliver P. Love, University of Windsor
Start: 2026-09-01
End: 2028-09-01

Project

Reproductive Strategies and Thermal Constraints in Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis)
My MSc project aims to characterize reproductive strategies in Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) and their sensitivity to thermal constraints in the High Arctic. Rapid Arctic warming could represent an important challenge for this cold-specialist species, which has a low heat tolerance. At Alert, Nunavut, I seek to understand how adults adjust their provisioning effort in response to temperature and how differences in strategy among pairs are reflected in their activity and reproductive performance. To do so, I combine nest visit frequency, measured using radio-frequency identification (RFID), with activity profiles between visits, measured using accelerometry. This approach allows for a better estimate of actual provisioning effort, since visit frequency alone does not provide information on the activities performed between visits. Accelerometer signals are calibrated in the UQAR aviary to link activity levels to different behaviours, including flight and rest, as well as to energy expenditure measured using doubly labelled water. I then seek to determine how these activity profiles vary with temperature and how they are associated with reproductive performance, including diet quality, nestling growth, and fledging success. As the Arctic is warming much more rapidly than the rest of the globe, this project will contribute to a better understanding of the consequences of warming for the reproduction and persistence of Arctic bird populations.

Keywords

Écophysiologie, Ornithologie arctique, tolérance à la chaleur, Stratégies reproductives, Dépense énergétique, plectrophane des neiges

Publications

1- A Refined Approach for Short-Eared Owl Detection and Nest Localization in Arctic Environments
Lemaître, Jérôme, Alexandre Anctil, Guillaume Tremblay, Maude Fortier-Boisclair, Sonia Boudreault, Marika Roberge, Jean-François Therrien
2026 Journal of Raptor Research