Quantifying avian relative abundance and ecosystem service value to identify conservation opportunities in the Midwestern U.S.

Wilsey, Chad B.; Jensen, Caitlin M.; Miller, Nathaniel R.

doi:10.5751/ace-00902-110207

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 42 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To inform this, we used semivariograms to identify the spatial scale that variability in our environmental data leveled off at (200 km) [25]. We then applied a 200-km grid over our study area and randomly sampled our occurrence data into 10 representative training and testing datasets [63]. Each of these datasets were held constant for all models for a species to ensure comparability of performance measures, and to maintain constant prevalence between the training and testing datasets [64].…”

Section: Species Distribution Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

North American Birds Require Mitigation and Adaptation to Reduce Vulnerability to Climate Change

Bateman

Wilsey

Taylor

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate across the globe, with extinction rates up to a hundred times greater than historical norms. Climate change will only exacerbate this crisis. The rapid pace of projected climate change is set to push birds to seek new locations, drastically reshuffling the avian communities of North America. In an emerging climate crisis, effective conservation requires both adaptation and mitigation to improve the resilience of species. However, the pledged reductions in greenhouse gas emissions outlined in the Paris Agreement framework would still lead to a 3.2°C or greater increase in global mean temperature by the end of this century. In this study, we use big data analytics to develop species distribution models and assess the vulnerability of 604 North American birds to multiple climate change scenarios. We assess how climate change mitigation can affect the number of species vulnerable to climate change, as well as the species and locations at risk if emissions continue unchecked. Our results indicate that over two-thirds of North American birds are moderately or highly vulnerable to climate change under a 3.0°C global warming scenario. Of these climate-vulnerable species, 76% would have reduced vulnerability and 38% of those would be considered non-vulnerable if warming were stabilized at 1.5°C. Thus, the current pledge in greenhouse gas reductions set by the Paris Agreement is inadequate to reduce vulnerability to birds. Additionally, if climate change proceeds on its current trajectory, arctic birds, waterbirds and boreal and western forest birds will be highly vulnerable to climate change; groups that are currently not considered of high conservation concern. Thus, there is an urgent need for both aggressive policies to mitigate emissions and focused conservation adaptation actions to protect birds and the places they need in a changing climate.

show abstract

Section: Species Distribution Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

North American Birds Require Mitigation and Adaptation to Reduce Vulnerability to Climate Change

Bateman

Wilsey

Taylor

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It has also been used to evaluate the complex relationship between ecosystem services and resources and biodiversity needs. For example, Wilsey, Jensen, and Miller (2016) used community science data to demonstrate that the grassland habitats that are vital to certain bird species also provide an estimated $900 million each year in ecosystem services, such as flood control. It can therefore contribute to protected area resilience by providing a better understanding of the state of our natural resources and their links with biodiversity, presumably leading to better management decisions and outcomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The unrealized potential of community science to support research on the resilience of protected areas

Binley

Proctor

Pither³

et al. 2021

Conservat Sci and Prac

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To remain effective into the future, protected areas must be resilient to change. Evaluating the resilience of protected areas requires data across large spatial and temporal scales, which has proven to be a strength of community science in conservation research. Here, we assess the contributions of community science to different topics of protected area research and identify gaps where community science can be used more effectively. We performed a literature search aimed at capturing the research on resilient protected area design and management, then used Latent Dirichlet Allocation to model the topics represented in this corpus. Once topics were established, we searched for evidence of community science being used in each publication. Our analysis showed that there are five main areas of focus in resilient protected area research: biodiversity, climate change, connectivity, resources and ecosystem services, and social governance. We found limited evidence in the literature of community science directly assisting research in these areas. Community science has proven effective for extensive and cost-effective data collection in other situations; therefore, we recommend ways in which conservation managers and researchers can incorporate community science in the design and management of resilient protected areas.

show abstract

“…In each bootstrapped dataset, observations from grid cells assigned to training represented 25% of observations in that dataset. This modified grid-sampling algorithm also maintained a constant prevalence between the training and evaluation datasets (as in Wilsey, Jensen, & Miller, 2016). Finally, we filtered observations using both geographic (Boria et al, 2014) and environmental (Varela, Anderson, García-Valdés, & Fernández-González, 2014) approaches to reduce bias and minimize model over-fitting.…”

Section: Species Distribution Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate policy action needed to reduce vulnerability of conservation‐reliant grassland birds in North America

Wilsey

Taylor

Bateman

et al. 2019

Conservat Sci and Prac

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Grassland birds have suffered dramatic population declines and are under threat of further grassland conversion. Simultaneously, grassland regions are projected to have high rates of future climate change. We assessed the vulnerability of grassland birds in North America under scenarios of global climate change reflecting the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The assessment incorporated model‐based projections of range losses and gains as well as trait‐based information on adaptive capacity. Nearly half (42%) of grassland birds were highly vulnerable during the breeding season under a 3.0°C increase in global mean temperature scenario representing current commitments under the Paris Accord. This proportion declined to 13% with a 2.0°C increase and to 8% with a 1.5°C increase over preindustrial global mean temperature. Regardless of scenario, more than 70% of grassland birds had some vulnerability to climate change. Policy actions beyond the present‐day national commitments under the Paris Accord are needed to reduce vulnerability of grassland birds in a changing climate.

show abstract

Quantifying avian relative abundance and ecosystem service value to identify conservation opportunities in the Midwestern U.S.

Cited by 8 publications

References 42 publications

North American Birds Require Mitigation and Adaptation to Reduce Vulnerability to Climate Change

North American Birds Require Mitigation and Adaptation to Reduce Vulnerability to Climate Change

The unrealized potential of community science to support research on the resilience of protected areas

Climate policy action needed to reduce vulnerability of conservation‐reliant grassland birds in North America

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About