Marjorie Sorensen and her international team of collaborators have just published a paper in Ecology and Evolution asking whether longer bird migrations are associated with increased blood parasitism, by exposing birds to a greater variety of parasites. Marjorie and team used stable isotopes to estimate the migration distances of willow warblers wintering in Zambia, and found that this was unrelated to blood parasitism or other indices of health and condition, suggesting that other factors might be more important in determining individual susceptibility to disease in migratory birds.
Jess Lund awarded an R. C. Lewontin Grant from the Society for the Study of Evolution
The Society for the Study of Evolution has awarded Jess Lund an R. C. Lewontin Graduate Research Excellence Grant, which will enable her to expand her investigations into the fascinating lives of honeyguides. This grant is awarded to students early in their PhD programmes to assist them in enhancing the scope of their research. Thank you to the SSE for their generous support of our work!