A common way ecologists predict population counts may be an unreliable way of forecasting future bird counts in urban areas, meaning scientists may be overestimating and underestimating the losses of certain species.
As bird populations dwindle across the globe, a new study from University of Vermont researchers suggests some species may be more flexible to habitat changes than previously understood, creating new opportunities for supporting populations through city planting efforts.
Brian Beckage, a professor with joint appointments in UVM's Department of Plant Biology and Computer Science, and a co-author of the study, says the study's results reflect the nature of complex systems."Whenever you're fitting a model to a dataset at one point in time, there are a lot of other things going on in the environment … and so you're conditioning on a lot of things that you're not really aware you're conditioning on.
"It can improve the quality of the environment for people; it can directly mitigate climate change because trees absorb more carbon; it can mitigate local effects of climate change like heat because it provides more shade," Beckage explains."It can also provide more habitat for birds. It also gives people agency to make the world better in all these different ways by doing something that's not that hard to do.
For instance, certain birds, like the Pacific Wren, appear finicky. During the breeding season, they nest in large forest expanses in British Columbia. However, Eyster found the wrens venture into new territory in the fall and winter."They're moving into people's cedar hedgerows in their yards. They move into these completely different landscapes," he says,"and we've actually seen an increase in how they're using the rest of these cities.
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