{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86617"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86617","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"From Microbiota to Macroecology: Three Levels of Purple Martin Ecology","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Williams, Heather; 0000-0003-0755-3866"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dittmar, Katharina","Evolution, Ecology and Behavior"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-02-21T20:58:51Z","date_published":"2025-02-21T20:58:51Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:32Z","subjects":["ecology","biology","wildlife management"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86617","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dittmar, Katharina","Evolution, Ecology and Behavior"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Williams, Heather; 0000-0003-0755-3866"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-02-21T20:58:51Z","2020"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["ecology","biology","wildlife management"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86617"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","Purple martins (Progne subis) are migratory aerial insectivores in the swallow family. They have an unusually close relationship with humans in the breeding range and nest exclusively in man-made nest boxes in the eastern part of their range. This human association makes them an appealing 'model organism' for research due to the ease of locating colonies, the relative ease with which they can be handled, and the wealth of citizen science data and research which has been collated about them. Here, I use purple martins as a subject with which to address a series of broad ecological questions including 1) What are the fitness costs of parasitism? 2) What determines the level of parental care in an altricial species? 3) Is there a strong link between habitat suitability and fecundity or abundance? More specifically, I first address whether a conservation policy aimed at reducing ectoparasite abundance and associated fitness costs to nestling purple martins is effective. I found that the practice reduces the abundance of two of the three main ectoparasite species, but with equivocal fitness benefits to nestlings. Secondly, I use artificial intelligence to automate the classification of nest camera video footage to determine incubation attentiveness and provisioning rate in purple martins. I use the results of these analyses to study the main factors determining the level of parental care in this species, finding strong evidence for environmental limitation in both cases. Thirdly, I consider the role that nest ectoparasites may play as vectors, and find evidence for a novel transmission cycle of Bartonella. Finally, I create a species distribution model for the eastern breeding range of the purple martin and test the (often presumed) link between habitat suitability and species success. I find no link between habitat suitability and fecundity or local abundance, but a threshold-type relationship between habitat suitability and regional abundance. This suggests that local success is driven largely by biotic and stochastic factors, and raises the possibility that purple martins are experiencing a time lag in their distribution.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["From Microbiota to Macroecology: Three Levels of Purple Martin Ecology"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dittmar, Katharina","Evolution, Ecology and Behavior"],"dc:creator":["Williams, Heather; 0000-0003-0755-3866"],"dc:date":["2025-02-21T20:58:51Z","2020"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","Purple martins (Progne subis) are migratory aerial insectivores in the swallow family. They have an unusually close relationship with humans in the breeding range and nest exclusively in man-made nest boxes in the eastern part of their range. This human association makes them an appealing 'model organism' for research due to the ease of locating colonies, the relative ease with which they can be handled, and the wealth of citizen science data and research which has been collated about them. Here, I use purple martins as a subject with which to address a series of broad ecological questions including 1) What are the fitness costs of parasitism? 2) What determines the level of parental care in an altricial species? 3) Is there a strong link between habitat suitability and fecundity or abundance? More specifically, I first address whether a conservation policy aimed at reducing ectoparasite abundance and associated fitness costs to nestling purple martins is effective. I found that the practice reduces the abundance of two of the three main ectoparasite species, but with equivocal fitness benefits to nestlings. Secondly, I use artificial intelligence to automate the classification of nest camera video footage to determine incubation attentiveness and provisioning rate in purple martins. I use the results of these analyses to study the main factors determining the level of parental care in this species, finding strong evidence for environmental limitation in both cases. Thirdly, I consider the role that nest ectoparasites may play as vectors, and find evidence for a novel transmission cycle of Bartonella. Finally, I create a species distribution model for the eastern breeding range of the purple martin and test the (often presumed) link between habitat suitability and species success. I find no link between habitat suitability and fecundity or local abundance, but a threshold-type relationship between habitat suitability and regional abundance. This suggests that local success is driven largely by biotic and stochastic factors, and raises the possibility that purple martins are experiencing a time lag in their distribution.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86617"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["ecology","biology","wildlife management"],"dc:title":["From Microbiota to Macroecology: Three Levels of Purple Martin Ecology"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:32Z"}