Tag : Biodiversity

Madison (Wisconsin): Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed the maps at a fine-enough resolution to help conservation managers focus their efforts where they are most likely to help birds -- in individual counties or forests, rather than across whole states or regions. The study was published in the journal, 'Ecological Applications'. The maps span the contiguous US and predicted the diversity of birds that live in a given area, related by traits such as nesting on the ground or being endangered. Those predictions were based on both detailed observations of birds and environmental factors that affect bird ranges, such as the degree of forest cover or temperature in an area. "With these maps, managers have a tool they didn't have before that allows them to get both a broad perspective as well as information at the level of detail that's necessary for their action plans," said Anna Pidgeon, a professor of forest and wildlife ecology at UW-Madison who helped lead the development of the maps. "Across the world, we're seeing huge species losses. In North America, 3 billion birds have been lost since 1970. This is across virtually all habitat types," said author Kathaleen Carroll. "And we're seeing a disconnect between what scientists produce for conservation and how that translates to boots-on-the-ground management," she added. Many resources previously available to conservation managers, such as species range maps, are both at too broad of a scale to be useful and not rigorously tested for accuracy. To overcome those challenges, Carroll and her team wanted to develop data-driven maps of existing bird biodiversity. They produced the maps by extrapolating observations of birds from scientific surveys to mile- ...