Chad Seewagen

I'm a wildlife biologist with a broad range of interests, but my work focuses mainly on the responses of migratory songbirds and bats to environmental change in the Northeast. I use a variety of field and lab techniques that integrate ecology, behavior, physiology, and ecotoxicology to provide novel information about the impacts of land-use change, pollutants, and invasive plants to wildlife to help guide conservation action. A maintained list of recent and current projects can be found here.

Key words: Avian ecology; bird migration; stopover; bats; light pollution; mercury pollution; invasive species

Representative Publications:

Clark, R.E., W.A. Carter, T.C.W. Ku, and C.L. Seewagen. 2024. Invasive plants as a foraging resource for insectivorous birds in a Connecticut, USA forest: insights from a community-level bird-exclusion experiment. Biological Invasions 26:2081-2093.

Carter, W.A. and C.L. Seewagen. 2024. Alteration of a temperate forest invertebrate community by invasive Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) has limited influence on the diet composition of territorial ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla). Canadian Journal of Zoology 102:27-38.

Seewagen, C.L., J. Nadeau-Gneckow, and A.M. Adams. 2023. Far-reaching displacement effects of artificial light at night in a North American bat community. Global Ecology and Conservation e02729.

Seewagen, C.L., C.R. Elowe, A.R. Gerson, D.J.E. Groom, Y. Ma, M. Yildirim, and C.G. Guglielmo. 2022. Short-term mercury exposure disrupts muscular and hepatic lipid metabolism in a migrant songbird. Scientific Reports 12:11470.

Hagani, J.S., S.K. Macey, J.D. Foley, and C.L. Seewagen. 2021. Movement ecology of the imperiled wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) in a lower Hudson River watershed. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 20:281-289. 

Seewagen, C.L., E.J. Slayton, and S. Smith Pagano. 2020. Physiological indicators of habitat quality for a migratory songbird breeding in a forest invaded by non-native Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii). Conservation Physiology 8:coaa037. 

Seewagen, C.L. 2020. The threat of global mercury pollution to bird migration: potential mechanisms and current evidence. Ecotoxicology 29:1254-1267. 

Seewagen, C.L., M. Glennon, and S.B. Smith. 2015. Does exurban housing development affect the​physiological condition of forest-breeding songbirds? A case study of ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla) in the largest protected area in the contiguous United States. Physiological & Biochemical Zoology 88:416-424.

Seewagen, C.L., C.G. Guglielmo, and Y.E. Morbey. 2013. Stopover refueling rate underlies protandry and seasonal variation in migration timing of songbirds. Behavioral Ecology 24:634-642.

Seewagen, C.L., C.D. Sheppard, E.J. Slayton, C.G. Guglielmo. 2011. Plasma metabolites and mass changes of migratory landbirds indicate adequate stopover refueling in a heavily urbanized landscape. Condor 113:284-297.