Outcomes of work:

We delivered a Workshop to Expand the Use of Emerging Technology to Understand the Ecology of Avian Herbivores in a Changing Climate at the 13^th International Grouse Symposium hosted by the Icelandic Institute of Natural History Sept 3^rd in Reykjavik, Iceland. Three female professors (assistant, associate and full) from three different universities, one female MS student, one female high school teacher, one male postdoc, one male MS student, one male PhD student and one male postmasters designed the workshop. Workshop chairs were Drs. Jennifer S. Forbey (Boise State University), Gail Patricelli (University of California, Davis) and Donna Delparte (Idaho State University).  The two MS students and one PhD student led two of the technology sessions during the workshop. The female high school teacher used the workshop to stimulate excitement for technology, international systems, and research in her classroom during after her return.  Specifically, the graduate students and teacher will be responsible for designing lesson plans for high school students that demonstrate how technology is used to assist with societal challenges and answer basic science questions. The lesson plans will provide high school students with hands on experience using techniques discussed during the workshop. As such, Drs. Forbey, Delparte and Patricelli provided mentoring and training on presentations and engaging with the public for two female MS student, one female high school teacher, one male postdoc, one male MS student, one male PhD student and one male postmasters.

Twenty-five participants representing ten countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, France, Poland, USA, Finland, Japan, China, UK) attended the workshop and discussions with the international scientific community led to several new collaborations internationally for workshop coordinators. Specifically, PI Forbey was an invited seminar speaker at six universities or research institutions throughout Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland as part of her Fulbright award where she discussed the role of using new technology to assess how plant chemical defenses in the health of herbivores and received input from stakeholders on how to best investigate the role of plant defenses to understand and maintain the health of arctic and alpine herbivores. These discussions led to a draft grant proposal that will be submitted to the National Science Foundation by the end of 2016. Dr. Forbey was also invited to be a member of the Herbivory Network and will contribute to developing protocols using new technology to measure the interactions between plant toxins and vertebrate herbivores in arctic and alpine ecosystems.

One major outcome of the workshop included a manuscript submitted, reviewed, revised and under final review in Wildlife Biology providing an overview of new technologies developed, in part, during our NSF project and how they can be used to understand and manage wildlife. The manuscript included five graduate students as coauthors:

Jennifer S. Forbey, Gail L. Patricelli, Donna M. Delparte, Alan. H. Krakauer, Peter J. Olsoy, Marcella R. Fremgen, Jordan D. Nobler, Lucas P. Spaete, Lisa A. Shipley, Janet L. Rachlow, Amy K. Dirksen, Anna Perry, Bryce A. Richardson, Nancy F. Glenn. In review Wildlife Biology. Emerging Technology to Measure Habitat Quality and Behavior of Grouse: examples from studies of Greater Sage-grouse.

In addition, our team delivered nine presentations that showcased the technology delivered at the technology workshops. Finally, we prepared six technology guides that were made available to workshop participants and shared electronically on the International Grouse Symposium Website, are currently being prepared for submission to “Grouse News”, and are available on the IdahoWatch website for public access and use by K-12 teachers.

Last Modified: 08/08/2016
Modified by: Jennifer Forbey