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Avian Ecology and Behaviour

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Last updated:
11 September 2023

Arseny Tsvey

Ph.D., Senior researcher

Born 24 July 1978 Leningrad (St. Petersburg), USSR (Russia).

E-mail: Arseny.Tsvey@zin.ru, arseny@ac6198.spb.edu

Education:

• 2004: Awarded a Ph.D. on Migration strategy of Robins (Erithacus rubecula) in Eastern Baltic from the Zoological Institute RAS, St. Petersburg.
• 2003―2006 ― PhD student at the Zoological Institute RAS, St. Petersburg.
• 2001―2003 ― Scientific assistant at the Biological station Rybachy, Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences.
• 1995―2000 ― Undergraduate study at Biological faculty of Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St. Petersburg.

Fields of scientific interest:

• Migration strategies of short- and long-distance passerine migrants.
• Stopover ecology (stopover duration, departure decision, fuel accumulation, time of nocturnal departure within a night).
• Physiological adaptations for migration (difference between short- and long-distance migrants).
• Regulation of migratory behavior by different endogenous and exogenous variables (endogenous rhythms, hormones, actual energetic condition, weather, food abundance, social interactions etc.) with special interest in transition between stopover and migratory flight.
• Long-term monitoring of energetic/physiological condition of passerine birds during migration with aim to understand the contribution of climate change to observed pattern.

My current research interests are connected with hormonal regulation of migration in passerines. Specifically I study the role of corticosterone in the control of migratory physiology and behavior. Corticosterone plays a major role in the regulation of energy metabolism as well as in developing a stress response of organisms to different noxious stimuli. Migration is a life cycle stage with heightened energy demands. Moreover birds continuously encounter new and often unpredictable conditions while on migration. Therefore corticosterone a priory should be involved in the regulation of migratory behavior and physiology. A lot of studies have investigated this topic during the last two decades, but the results are still contradictory. One possible reason for this is that most work has done on a single species, in different sites or during only one migratory season. I believe that the systematic study in one place during several consecutive seasons encompassing species with different migratory strategies might largely advance our knowledge in this field. One of my aims is to compare spring an autumn migration. Despite their obvious similarity in the sense they both are directed movements from breeding to wintering grounds (or vice versa), spring and autumn migration have unique features such as different direction of changes in daylength, the state of reproductive system and environmental conditions en route. How all of these peculiarities result in different regulatory mechanisms is still poorly known. On migration birds alternate between flight where energy is consumed and stopovers where energy is stored. I am also interested in the specific role of corticosterone in the regulation of these two migratory stages.

In addition I am trying to establish a methodology which allows estimation of the physiological condition of birds during migration based on metrics which we can obtain in the field. Physiological condition of individual birds can serve as a measure of condition of populations they belong to. Monitoring of the physiological condition of different species/populations can help to explain recent population trends and connect observed variation with climate fluctuations or anthropogenic impact. I use body mass as a cumulative measure of energetic and physiological condition. My aim is to understand how body mass correlates with corticosterone concentration in a blood, leucocyte profile and hematocrit. As a result I would like to determine the combination which best predicts individual physiological condition.

Complete list of my publications in Google Scholar

Profile in ResearcherID

Profile in ORCID

Profile in ResearchGate

Selected publications:

Loshchagina J., Tsvey A., Naidenko S. 2018. Baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels are higher during spring than autumn migration in European robins. Hormones and behavior 98: 96–102.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.12.013

Müller F., Taylor P.D., Sjöberg S., Muheim R., Tsvey A., Mackenzie S.A., Schmaljohann H. 2016. Towards a conceptual framework for explaining variation in nocturnal departure time of songbird migrants. Movement Ecology 4, 24.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-016-0089-2

Sokolov L.V., Tsvey A.L. 2016. Mechanisms controling the timing of spring migration in birds. Biology Bulletin 43(9):1148-1160.
https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359016110145

Kraus R.H.S., Kerstens H.H.D., van Hooft P., Megens H.-J., Elmberg J., Tsvey A., Sartakov D., Soloviev S.A., Crooijmans R.P.M.A., Groenen M.A.M., Ydenberg R.C., Prins H.H.T. 2012. Widespread horizontal genomic exchange does not erode species barriers among sympatric ducks. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 12: 45.
https://10.1186/1471-2148-12-45