Föstudaginn 9. maí mun Anja Bock kynna og verja meistaraprófsritgerð sína, sem nefnist: Characteristics of Sandy Beaches used by Resident Shorebirds in Tasmania. 

Leiðbeinendur hennar eru dr. Eric Woehler, heiðursrannsóknarmaður við University of Tasmania, og dr. Mike Phillips, aðstoðarrektor og prófessor við University of Wales. Prófdómari er dr. Gunnar Þór Hallgrímsson, dósent við Háskóla Íslands.

Kynningin hefst kl. 8:45 og fer fram í stofu 6 í Háskólasetri Vestfjarða. Allir velkomnir.

Abstract

Across nations sandy beaches are highly valued for their social and economic importance. Their importance is especially high in Australia where 80% of the population live within 100 km of the coast and beaches have been viewed as a national icon. Despite that fact, biodiversity and the environmental value of sandy beaches as ecosystems is often ignored. There has been lack of research on resident shorebirds and their habitat requirements, particularly regarding the importance of abiotic sandy beach characteristics for shorebirds.
This study is aimed to identify important abiotic characteristics for selected breeding shorebird species in Tasmania, emphasising the underlying distribution and abundance patterns. Predictors were found to contribute to different extent for the three species investigated in this study, with the surf zone width being one of the most important abiotic predictors, and invertebrate abundance the most important biotic predictors. Species-specific differences were also revealed with regards to all investigated variables, and also regarding the distributions of the species among regions and beaches.

Key words: Shorebirds, Tasmania, Habitat use, Environmental factors, Sandy beaches, Distribution and abundance, Beach attributes