Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI), a nonprofit ecological research group based in Portland, Maine, conducts innovative wildlife science worldwide.
BRI’s Center for Mercury Studies plays a lead scientific role in understanding the exposure and effects of mercury on wildlife in New England, North America, and around the world. The Center for Waterbird Studies is dedicated to assessing current and emerging threats to waterbirds. The programs in our Center for Ecology and Conservation Research aim to understand the workings of wildlife and their habitats while exploring how ecological stressors affect different species and ecosystems.
BRI's researchers are available to talk to journalists and provide expert information on both their work and the broader topics of their expertise.
To set up interviews, contact:
Deborah McKew, Communications Director
BRI research included in a landmark study as part of global animal tracking data collective
BRI researchers have joined scientists around the world in a landmark study published in the journal Science that uses three decades of animal tracking data to gather insights about animal responses to changing environmental conditions in the Arctic. The study, titled Ecological insights from three decades of animal movement tracking across a changing Arctic, utilizes and broadly introduces the Arctic Animal Movement Archive (AAMA). The AAMA is an active collection of tracking datasets from researchers across the globe for marine and terrestrial animals in the arctic. The AAMA is hosted on the online global movebank database (www.movebank.org).
By highlighting case studies in Golden Eagles, Caribou, and several terrestrial mammals, the study demonstrates how the AAMA can be a powerful research tool for studying the ecology of a wide variety of animals, and for understanding how they respond to the rapid environmental changes being observed in the arctic. As revealed by animals fitted with tracking devices, the study characterized changes in the timing of migration, movement rates and the timing of reproduction in relation to changing environmental conditions.
Also, check out the Arctic Animal Movement Archive (AAMA) on Movebank here, and explore other exciting, related links here.
