Maria Stager
University of Massachusetts, MA·Ecology & Evolution
As climates grow more variable and extreme weather becomes more frequent, a key question is whether animals can cope, and how. Small birds that spend winter in cold northern places offer a natural test.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Physiology
Biology
- Topics
physiological flexibility
acclimatization
phenotypic plasticity
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Quantify variation in physiological flexibility, the ability to turn heat production up or down, in Dark-eyed Juncos across a gradient of temperature variability, using repeated physiological assays.
- Measure the energy costs of flexible physiological changes in juncos through controlled laboratory experiments.
- Test whether natural selection acts on physiological flexibility in wild juncos by linking individual flexibility to survival in mark-resight studies using automated feeders.
- Track spatial and temporal changes in the frequency of gene variants associated with flexibility, using whole-genome resequencing of junco populations.
- Determine how differences in birds' physiology affect the stability of multi-species social foraging networks as temperatures vary, using feeders equipped with RFID readers.
- Experimentally alter energy demand, thermal environment and food availability among wild flockmates to test how physiology and social relationships shape each other.
More about the research
They raise their internal heat production on cold days and lower it when it warms, and they forage more to fuel that heat. Often they feed in flocks, sometimes made of several species. This research asks how individual birds differ in this physiological flexibility, what it costs them, whether it helps them survive and can evolve, and how it interacts with flock social life. Both projects track wild, individually marked songbirds at automated feeders.
Why it matters
Better estimates of which bird populations can adjust to rapid temperature swings could make projections of species survival under climate change more realistic. Feeding junco flexibility and survival data into National Audubon Society models aims to improve predictions and inform conservation action for wintering songbirds. Understanding how social foraging and energy demands interact may also clarify how bird communities hold up during harsh winter weather.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
ORCC: Interindividual variation in acclimatization capacity as a facilitator of population responsiveness to a changing climate
NSF · Jul 2024 – Jun 2029
IntBIO: Collaborative Research: Feedback between physiological performance and social foraging in multi-species social network of wintering birds
NSF · Sep 2023 – Aug 2027
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The school
University of Massachusetts: 28 labs on PI Pages, $282M a year on research, 337 research doctorates a year.
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