Sarah Jennings is a PhD candidate in the Graduate Group in Ecology. Before joining the Nevitt lab, Sarah worked as a researcher at the University of Washington studying seabird bycatch in global fisheries. Sarah’s research interests encompass individual recognition and animal communication. Specifically, she is interested in how Procellariiform seabirds use their sensory systems to obtain and transfer information at the breeding colony.

Education

BS Biology and Environmental Studies; Whitman College (2007)

Research Interests

Our lab monitors a large colony of Leach’s storm-petrels (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) on Bon Portage Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. This small, long-lived species breeds in underground burrows where they rear only one chick per year. Leach’s storm petrels, like other Procellariiform seabirds, are monogamous and have a strong, often lifelong, fidelity to both their mate and their nest. They are nocturnally active at the colony, where they must rely on non-visual cues to communicate. For my PhD, I am working to understand how Leach’s storm-petrels use olfactory and acoustic cues to identify conspecifics and gain information at the breeding colony.

Procellariiform, or tube-nose seabirds, including Leach’s storm-petrels, are recognized for their well-developed sense of smell. Previous work has shown that they can use olfactory cues to identify conspecifics and their burrow. Using analytical chemistry techniques, I am investigating the “personal odor” associated with both individuals and their nest. I hope to identify the compounds associated with differences between individuals, and to explore the link between personal odor and MHC genotype.

While the use of olfaction for mate and burrow recognition is well established in this species, much less is known about the role of acoustic cues for communication at the colony. Previous studies have described the vocal repertoire of Leach’s storm-petrels and identified a sexual signature to their calls, but there is a need for further work to describe the ecological relevance of these signals. For my PhD, I am exploring call discrimination and acoustical individual recognition in Leach’s storm-petrels. I am obtaining recordings of individuals at our breeding colony in Nova Scotia and employing both field-based playback experiments and acoustic analysis software programs to identify if there is an individual signature to storm-petrel calls and whether birds are able to use acoustic cues to identify conspecifics, congeners, and their mate.