The Research Awards Committee of the Waterbird Society has selected recipients for the 2019 Nisbet, Kushlan, and Waterbird Society Awards. The Nisbet Research Award is open globally to any student, professional, or amateur with a focus on research and conservation of terns and gulls in the Laridae family. The Kushlan Research Award in Ciconiiform Biology and Conservation is open to those undertaking research on the biology, ecology, or conservation of wading birds. The goal of the Waterbird Society Research Award is to encourage significant advances in the biology, ecology, status assessment or conservation biology of waterbirds.
2019 Nisbet Research Awards
Mateusz Ledwon, (Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences) and Sarah Bolinger (University of Louisiana at Lafayette) were awarded full or partial Nisbet Research Awards. Mateusz Ledwon is studying migration and female desertion in Whiskered Terns. Sarah Bolinger is working on multi-fate nest survival models and model estimates of nest predation of Least Terns in Southeast Louisiana.
2019 Kushlan Research Awards
Anastasia Rahlin (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Kate Shlepr (Florida Atlantic University) were the recipients of the Kushlan Research Award. Anastasia Rahlin is using environmental DNA sampling to determine heron and bittern occupancy in western Michigan with a metagenomic approach. Kate Shlepr will be evaluating potential genetic adaptation and increased population resilience in the federally listed Wood Stork.
Waterbirds Research Award
Lindsey Tiegs (Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison) was awarded a Waterbird Society Research Award. She will be studying the use of rails as indicators of hydrologic change and subsequent wetland quality in the St. Louis River Estuary.
These grants are funded by endowments provided by the generosity of two former Presidents of the Waterbird Society: Dr. Jim Kushlan and Dr. Ian Nisbet and his wife Shirley; and by the Waterbird Society's general fund ( https://waterbirds.org/research-grants/).
