Earthwatch Award Recipient Summary
Awardee: Gabor Lövei, PhD
Affiliation: Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences
Project: Europe-Africa Songbird Migration
Award: 2004 Aviva/Earthwatch Award for Climate Change Research
Project Synopsis
Dr. Gabor Lövei and colleagues in Hungary, Italy, and Kenya are monitoring songbirds along their migratory route between Europe and Africa. Many songbirds in Europe are in decline, and the scientists' efforts are designed to determine if the birds are losing ground during their arduous winter migration south. Since 1993, Earthwatch teams have helped Lövei patrol mist nets and transport captured birds to banding sites, where they are weighed and measured. The scientists also take blood samples and assess the birds' molt state and fat condition, vital clues to their health. In ten years, 288 Earthwatch volunteers working at the three research sites captured, ringed, measured. and released 215,430 birds of 154 species. Their long-term findings will help indicate habitat loss along the birds' migratory route and determine the impact of climate change.
Award Outcomes
The Aviva Award allowed Dr. Lovei to:
· Publish a book on his 20 years of research at Ocsa, Hungary.
· Use stable isotope analysis to track the origins of migrant songbirds
Dr. Lovei is in the process of synthesizing two decades of data from his research at the banding site on the rich wetlands of Ocsa, Hungary. The Aviva award will allow him to publish this important work in a single volume, making it available to other researchers and bird enthusiasts. The book will be a valuable resource for further understanding the impacts of global change on migrations and other animal behaviors. Dr. Lovei hopes to publish the book in two years' time.
The Aviva award will also fund the use of stable isotope analysis on the feathers of migrant songbirds sampled by Dr. Lovei and his Earthwatch teams. This state-of-the-art biochemical technique will allow researchers to read the special isotope "signature" of each bird, narrowing down the site of their breeding grounds from the levels of different isotopes in their tissues. Dr. Lovei plans to apply this method on birds sampled at Ocsa, and perhaps use it later in Kenya, where he recently discovered a roost of more than a million barn swallows.
Publications and Papers
Book in preparation
Quotes
"I feel elated, honored and humbled to win this award. The possibilities for this project are huge and with extra resources I hope that we can continue with our research long into the future, and in doing so secure the future of the migratory songbird. Earthwatch support has been vital to our project; the opportunity to share my work and ideas with so many people from different walks of life has been fantastic."
"The state of the environment is in our collective hands, and informed laymen are essential if we have any hope to pass onto our children a habitable world. Earthwatch has allowed us to do just that: to work with a large number of committed lay people who, I hope, have become informed about and dedicated to conservation. I enjoy the heady mix of different cultures on Earthwatch teams, the electrifying atmosphere resulting from the high motivation of volunteers, the overwhelming will to learn and help the project and each other."
"It is very satisfying to have this work acknowledged - this is a sign that something useful was created, that we could add something worthwhile. It also allows us to grow further - boosting the confidence of my research partners, and advance their scientific recognition in their own country. The local support for this project has been significantly boosted by the award."