Field Vlog: Updates on Amazonian Irrigation Experiment

In this video, I’m in the Amazon introducing an NSF-funded irrigation experiment designed to pinpoint a key driver of widespread bird declines: increasingly severe dry seasons linked to climate change. This collaborative project with Dr. David Luther (George Mason University) and Dr. Cintia Cornelius (Federal University of Amazonas) brings together our expertise in bird ecology and tropical conservation. By artificially increasing rainfall in select forest plots, we’re testing how shifts in moisture and temperature impact bird physiology and habitat use. Our goal is to understand how these environmental changes shape bird survival in a rapidly changing Amazon. Watch to see how we’re tracking these impacts—and what this could mean for the future of tropical bird conservation.