Collaborative research: developing in a dynamic environment: from integrative mechanisms to population-level consequences

Franklin and Marshall College received a $155,616 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Integrative Organismal Systems under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), effective October 15, 2025, with completion targeted for September 30, 2028. The award supports collaborative research investigating how developmental cold exposure influences organism resilience to dynamic temperature environments, with particular focus on wild bird populations. The research integrates experimental studies conducted in field settings, longitudinal population data analysis, and continent-scale datasets to elucidate the mechanistic underpinnings—including neuroendocrine, transcriptomic, and epigenetic processes—that drive adaptive plasticity and population-level responses to climate stress.

Beyond fundamental scientific advancement, the project delivers practical outputs designed to enhance the welfare of millions of nesting birds. Coordinated experimental and analytical activities will generate site-specific recommendations for nest box design informed by ecologically relevant cold challenges. These evidence-based design recommendations will be disseminated through partnership with Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Project NestWatch platform, providing accessible guidance to nest box managers and stakeholders nationwide. The research directly addresses critical questions in organismal biology regarding how environmental interactions determine complex trait emergence and organism-population level responses to climate change.

Abstract

Many organisms are threatened by exposure to extreme weather ? Including cold spells. Exposure to cold classically slows or arrests development; however, cold exposure early in life can also change how organisms develop in ways that affect their ability to cope with extreme weather later in life. This project will test whether developmental cold exposure influences the subsequent response to dynamic temperatures, and how this process occurs. IT will integrate experimental approaches in wild birds, data from a long-term study population, and analyses of publicly available continent-scale data, to address how dynamic environments affect individuals and populations, and which processes drive resilience and robustness to stress. The broader impacts of this project will also address the vulnerability of the millions of birds that nest annually in nest boxes to extreme weather. Additional experimental studies and analyses of continent-wide data will inform the development of site-specific recommendations for nest box design, which will be disseminated widely in partnership with the cornell lab of ornithology?s project nestwatch. This project will address central questions in organismal biology, including the mechanistic underpinnings of organism- and population-level responses to climate change, and how interactions between organisms and their environments determine the emergence of complex traits. Coordinated experiments will assess potential mediators of developmental plasticity, including neuroendocrine systems and transcriptomic and epigenetic processes. A key advance will be in illuminating when ecologically relevant cold challenges trigger adaptive plasticity. Most of what is known about the effects of developmental cold exposure in homeotherms comes from studies in which individuals were reared in captivity, often at consistently cold temperatures. Manipulating the temperature of natural nests is a powerful approach for testing the likely impacts of changing thermal regimes, as the effects of ambient temperatures on offspring can be augmented or buffered by parental behavior. This research will also provide insight into the drivers of resilience (returning to a stable state following disturbance). To understand the emergence of this phenomenon at higher levels, IT is necessary to connect sub-organismal processes with their individual- and population-level consequences. Using a combination of experimental, environmental, and large-scale population monitoring and abundance data, this research will test whether developmental plasticity modifies resilience in individuals and in populations. By integrating data across levels this project will also elucidate whether cold-induced plasticity will buffer the effects of dynamic temperatures on a widespread but declining songbird. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.