WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King announced today that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the University of Maine $201,515 in grant funding to support the study of climate change and its effect on birds’ migratory patterns and food sources.

“Understanding the effects of climate change is vital to the future of our environment and economy, and the researchers at the University of Maine are on the cutting edge of that endeavor,” said Senators Collins and King in a joint statement. “This grant funding will support the university’s impressive science program and help further our understanding of climate change, its geographic implications, and its impact on the food chain.”

While there is much evidence that plants and animals are relocating as a result of climate change, it remains unclear how they do so and whether changes for one species affect those in other species. Birds, for example, can move easily from one region to another, but the plants and insects they depend on for food cannot. This project explores the possibility that birds may find suitable climatic conditions in a new area, but be deterred from moving there because the plants and insects they typically feed on have not been able to relocate.

The grant funding has been awarded through the National Science Foundation’s Division of Environmental Biology.

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