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Pierce’s research focuses on birds’ nutrient requirements during migration and the influence of these nutrients on the birds’ ability to complete migration.
She has found that migratory songbirds are able to distinguish between foods differing only in fatty acid composition. Her research also indicates that songbirds prefer foods with specific unsaturated fatty acids, and that birds with certain fatty acids in their fat stores use less energy during flight than birds with other types of fatty acids. She is examining how antioxidants and changes in the fatty acid composition of deposited fat affect energetic performance in birds.
“There is a lot of public interest in dietary antioxidants and how they promote human health,” said Pierce. “Migratory birds offer a really interesting model for the relationship between antioxidants and fat metabolism, because birds have relatively low rates of free radical production despite their high metabolic rates.”
Pierce will use an avian wind tunnel at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and another at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany.
“Birds generally have higher maximum life spans than mammals of similar size, so our research is basically looking at how a bird’s internal antioxidant system responds during periods of high-energetic demand, like flying.”
Her research will also look at how this system changes between seasons when birds are only migrating during the fall and when they are migrating in the spring while preparing for the breeding season.
Pierce’s grant for her project “Collaborative Proposal: Fat Metabolism and Oxidative Stress in Exercising Migratory Birds.” extends through Aug. 31, 2017.
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