INHS PaCE Lab made a huge contribution to the 2026 Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference with 10 oral presentations and 2 posters.
While two herp symposia were dominated by the PaCE Lab, “Snakes in Winter” and “Research to Inform Management: Conservation of Freshwater Turtles and Other Threatened Amphibians and Reptiles in the Midwest,” ornithologist Asya Rahlin, malacologist Sarah Douglass, and Environmental Ed Program lead Jen Mui showed that we study more than just herps in the PaCE Lab.
UBAP lead, ornithologist Anastasia Rahlin presented “Using bird blood metabolites to assess wren food limitation” in the “Emerging Technologies and the Future of Bird Conservation” symposium.
Physiological biomarkers offer an underutilized tool for understanding how birds cope with food limitation and environmental stress. Blood metabolites such as glucose, ketones, and triglycerides provide real-time indices of energetic condition that can be linked to food availability, body condition, and resilience to extreme weather events. Using rapid point-of-care devices in the field, we measured metabolite levels in Marsh and Sedge Wrens across multiple breeding seasons in Illinois wetlands. These data revealed patterns of short- and long-term food limitation, as well as blood metabolite shifts following re-nesting attempts linked to periods of heavy rainfall and drought. Integrating metabolite monitoring into field research offers new opportunities to assess habitat quality, anticipate population responses to climate extremes, and potentially link individual physiology to habitat quality and population resilience. To complement these physiological data, we are piloting using fecal metabarcoding to identify songbird insect prey and explore links between prey availability, diet composition, and food quality, with management implications for birds and pollinators. Future research will integrate field and molecular diet data with metabolite measurements to assess energetic value of insect prey, and determine whether shifts in prey availability across the Chicagoland region impact bird health and breeding activity during the breeding season. Together, these approaches demonstrate how blood metabolites, paired with emerging molecular tools, can discover links between environmental change, prey dynamics, and bird health.
Freshwater Mollusk Ecology and Conservation lead Sarah Douglass presented “A Decade of Detection: Monitoring Freshwater Mussels After Bridge Expansion” co-authored with M.J. Dreslik in the “Bridging the Divide: Wildlife Connectivity, Crossings, and the Future of Transportation Ecology in the Midwest” symposium.
Robust long-term monitoring programs are well established for certain faunal groups yet remain limited for freshwater mussels. Many freshwater mussel species are long-lived, inhabit dynamic lotic environments, and face numerous threats including water quality degradation, barriers to host fish dispersal (e.g., dams), invasive species, and habitat loss. Increasingly, mark-recapture methods are being employed to assess the effectiveness of mitigation strategies in response to anthropogenic disturbances, such as bridge construction. When such activities pose risks to mussel populations, individuals are often relocated from impact zones. Over the past decade, we have conducted long-term monitoring of a freshwater mussel population in the Kishwaukee River (northern Illinois, USA) following a bridge expansion project. Our study aimed to evaluate apparent survival, detection probability, and movement patterns of marked individuals post-construction. Our findings highlight the value of individual-based monitoring in informing conservation strategies and improving our understanding of mussel responses to anthropogenic disturbance.>/p>
EEP lead Jen Mui presented a poster “The Traveling Science Center – Bringing Science to the People for 20 Years” co-authored with Patricia Dickerson.
Since 2006, the Traveling Science Center has been delivering environmental education directly to schools and communities across Illinois. Recognizing the challenges schools face to bring students to museums and nature centers, the Illinois Natural History Survey decided to bring the field trip to the schools. Housed in a 40 foot trailer, the TSC features hands on materials, and engaging exhibits on natural history and environmental science. Our modular design allows us to easily incorporate emerging research topics and support the broader impact and citizen science goals of our researchers. Over the past 20 years we have engaged students from more than 200 communities in Illinois and we will share our methods and lessons learned.
