Research Interests

As a John Lewis Paton Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, Biology and Ocean Sciences, I engage a long-term interdisciplinary ecosystem research program focused on the behavioural ecology of seabirds marine, food webs and biological oceanography. Students, post-doctoral fellows and assistants in my lab investigate environmental influences on animal behaviour and ecology. We explore multi-species interactions in dynamic Low Arctic and Boreal ecosystems and use seabird responses as indicators of fish and ocean conditions. We work with oceanographers, fisheries research scientists and seabird biologists from across Canada, the USA, Europe, Australia and Africa. Our research is conservation-oriented with attention directed at environmental assessments. Our work is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the World Wildlife Fund, and Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Current research projects involve 1) collaboration with Newfoundland fishers to minimize the bycatch of seabirds and other unwanted animals in fishing gear, 2) assessment of causal hypotheses related to the massive decline of the IUCN Vulnerable Leach’s Storm-Petrel, 3) associations of seabird diets and changing ocean climate and prey conditions, 4)tracking free-ranging seabirds to determine their foraging tactics and migratory ecology, and 5) integrating seabird behavioral ecology in risk assessments of light attraction at offshore hydro-carbon platforms, pollution, fishing, hunting and shipping. Most research is carried out in the Cape St. Mary’s, Witless Bay, Baccalieu Island and Funk Island Ecological Reserves (www.funkisland.ca).

Publications

see Dr. Montevecchi’s website