• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Saturday, October 4, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Working landscapes can support diverse bird species

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
June 5, 2019
in Biology
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Forest patches are opportunities to conserve wildlife

IMAGE

Credit: Daniel Karp/UC Davis

Privately-owned, fragmented forests in Costa Rica can support as many vulnerable bird species as can nearby nature reserves, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

The research suggests that working with landowners to conserve or restore forests on working landscapes can help protect wildlife. In Costa Rica, working landscapes include forest patches, crops, pastures and small towns.

The study, published June 5 in the Journal of Applied Ecology, found that reforesting private lands in regions that are wetter and already forested would yield the greatest gains for bird communities.

Such information is being used by local conservation organizations to help prioritize sites for rainforest restoration across the study region.

“With sufficient forest cover, working landscapes– even if degraded and fragmented– can maintain bird communities that are indistinguishable from those found in protected areas,” said lead author Daniel Karp, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology. “This means that private landowners have great power to improve the conservation value of their lands through reforestation.”

WET, FORESTED AREAS A PRIORITY

As part of a research project funded by National Geographic, the authors surveyed Neotropical birds at 150 sites across northwestern Costa Rica over two years. They found that agricultural fields hosted diverse bird communities, but those birds were distinct from species found in protected areas. Agricultural species also had large distributions, making them of lower conservation value than species found in protected areas.

Privately-owned forests, however, housed the same bird species as those found in protected areas, despite being twice as fragmented and more degraded by logging, hunting and fires. This effect was especially strong in wetter and more forested areas. For instance, reforesting the wettest sites would increase bird similarity to protected areas four-fold compared to a two-fold increase in the driest sites, the study reported.

EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS

After decades of decline, forest coverage in Costa Rica has been increasing since around the early 1990s. That is when the country began providing monetary incentives for landowners to maintain forest on their private lands.

In a related study published May 20 in the journal Ecological Applications, Karp showed that the amount of local forest within about 150 feet of a site was the biggest determinant of the species of birds found there.

“Tropical birds respond very strongly to the amount of forest in their immediate vicinity,” Karp said. “That’s encouraging because it means forest restoration on a small scale, even in small patches, can be really effective in safeguarding vulnerable bird species.”

###

Media Contact
Kat Kerlin
[email protected]

Tags: BiodiversityBiologyEcology/EnvironmentForestryPopulation Biology
Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

DOG Gene Family in Wheat Drives Seed Dormancy

DOG Gene Family in Wheat Drives Seed Dormancy

October 4, 2025
blank

Discovery of MrSTP20: Sugar Transporter in Salt Stress

October 4, 2025

SNARE Neofunctionalization Driven by Vacuole Retrieval

October 4, 2025

Exploring Shigella Phage Sf14’s tRNA Contributions

October 3, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    93 shares
    Share 37 Tweet 23
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    89 shares
    Share 36 Tweet 22
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    75 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • New Insights Suggest ALS May Be an Autoimmune Disease

    69 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 17

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Key Skills for New ICU Nurses in Iran

Acylation Shapes Immunotherapy Success in Liver Cancer

EYA1 Boosts Colorectal Cancer Angiogenesis via HIF-1β Activation

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 62 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.