We are interested in the relationship between climate (spring temperature), and the timing (phenology) of key events that comprise a woodland food web, from tree to caterpillar to blue tit.
Since 2014 we have been conducting fieldwork on a 200 km transect running northward from Edinburgh and which is composed of 44 sites of varying habitat. This spatial replication allows us to examine whether insights obtained in oak woodlands generalise to other habitats.
Some of the questions we are currently working on include:
1) What is the causal relationship between blue tit lay date and fitness?
2) How does the optimum lay date change with spring temperature?
3) How does nestling diet vary spatially and how important are winter moths to blue tit diet?
Photos by Gergana Daskalova