Tag: Extinction

Acceleration hotspots of North American birds’ decline are associated with agriculture

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Author: Leroy, Francois; Jarzyna, Marta A.; Keil, Petr Description: Human activities might have accelerated declines of population abundance, but this acceleration remains underexplored. Using 1033 North American Breeding Bird Survey routes, we analyze abundance change and its acceleration for 261 bird species, 54 avian families, and 10 habitats from 1987 to 2021. We show an average continent-wide decline of abundance of all birds per local route, with hotspots of decline in southern and warm parts of North America and hotspots of accelerating decline in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and California, matching…

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Farmland practices are driving bird population decline across Europe

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Author: Rigal, Stanislas; Dakos, Vasilis; Alonso, Hany; Aunins, Ainars; Benko, Zoltan; Brotons, Lluis; Chodkiewicz, Tomasz; Chylarecki, Przemyslaw; de Carli, Elisabetta; Del Moral, Juan Carlos; Domsa, Cristian; Escandell, Virginia; Fontaine, Benoit; Foppen, Ruud; Gregory, Richard; Harris, Sarah; Herrando, Sergi; Husby, Magne; Ieronymidou, Christina; Jiguet, Frederic; Kennedy, John; Klvanova¡, Alena; Kmecl, Primoz; Kuczynski, Lechoslaw; Kurlavicius, Petras; Kalas, John Atle; Lehikoinen, Aleksi; Lindstrom, Ake; Lorrilliere, Romain; Moshoj, Charlotte; Nellis, Renno; Noble, David; Eskildsen, Daniel Palm; Paquet, Jean-Yves; Pelissie, Mathieu; Pladevall, Clara; Portolou, Danae; Reif, Jiri­; Schmid, Hans; Seaman, Benjamin; Szabo, Zoltan D.; Szep,…

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Insect decline in the Anthropocene: Death by a thousand cuts

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Author: Wagner, David L.; Grames, Eliza M.; Forister, Matthew L.; Berenbaum, May R.; Stopak, David Description: Nature is under siege. In the last 10,000 y the human population has grown from 1 million to 7.8 billion. Much of Earth’s arable lands are already in agriculture, millions of acres of tropical forest are cleared each year, atmospheric CO2 levels are at their highest concentrations in more than 3 million y, and climates are erratically and steadily changing from pole to pole, triggering unprecedented droughts, fires, and floods across continents. Indeed, most…

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Are declines in insects and insectivorous birds related?

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Author: Tallamy, Douglas W.; Shriver, W. Gregory Description: A flurry of recently published studies indicates that both insects and birds have experienced wide-scale population declines in the last several decades. Curiously, whether insect and bird declines are causally linked has received little empirical attention. Here, we hypothesize that insect declines are an important factor contributing to the decline of insectivorous birds. We further suggest that insect populations essential to insectivorous birds decline whenever non-native lumber, ornamental, or invasive plant species replace native plant communities. We support our hypothesis by reviewing…

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The projected timing of abrupt ecological disruption from climate change

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Author: Trisos, Christopher H.; Merow, Cory; Pigot, Alex L. Description: As anthropogenic climate change continues the risks to biodiversity will increase over time, with future projections indicating that a potentially catastrophic loss of global biodiversity is on the horizon. However, our understanding of when and how abruptly this climate-driven disruption of biodiversity will occur is limited because biodiversity forecasts typically focus on individual snapshots of the future. Here we use annual projections (from 1850 to 2100) of temperature and precipitation across the ranges of more than 30,000 marine and terrestrial…

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Vertebrates on the brink as indicators of biological annihilation and the sixth mass extinction

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Author: Ceballos, Gerardo; Ehrlich, Paul R.; Raven, Peter H. Description: The ongoing sixth mass species extinction is the result of the destruction of component populations leading to eventual extirpation of entire species. Populations and species extinctions have severe implications for society through the degradation of ecosystem services. Here we assess the extinction crisis from a different perspective. We examine 29,400 species of terrestrial vertebrates, and determine which are on the brink of extinction because they have fewer than 1,000 individuals. There are 515 species on the brink (1.7% of the…

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The state of the bats in North America

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Author: Adams, Amanda M.; Trujillo, Luis A.; Campbell, C. J.; Akre, Karin L.; Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquin; Burns, Leanne; Coleman, Jeremy T. H.; Dixon, Rita D.; Francis, Charles M.; Gamba-Rios, Melquisedec; Kuczynska, Vona; McIntire, Angie; Medelli­n, Rodrigo A.; Morris, Katrina M.; Ortega, Jorge; Reichard, Jonathan D.; Reichert, Brian; Segers, Jordi L.; Whitby, Michael D.; Frick, Winifred F. Description: The world’s rich diversity of bats supports healthy ecosystems and important ecosystem services. Maintaining healthy biological systems requires prompt identification of threats to biodiversity and immediate action to protect species, which for wide-ranging bat…

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Monarch Butterflies in Western North America: A Holistic Review of Population Trends, Ecology, Stressors, Resilience and Adaptation

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Author: James, David G. Description: Monarch butterfly populations in western North America suffered a substantial decline, from millions of butterflies overwintering in California in the 1980s to less than 400,000 at the beginning of the 21st century. The introduction of neonicotinoid insecticides in the mid-1990s and their subsequent widespread use appears to be the most likely major factor behind this sudden decline. Habitat loss and unfavorable climates (high temperatures, aridity, and winter storms) have also played important and ongoing roles. These factors kept overwintering populations stable but below 300,000 during…

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Temperature is positively associated with tree mortality in California subalpine forests containing whitebark pine

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Author: Young, Derek J. N.; Slaton, Michèle R.; Koltunov, Alexander Description: Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) is a keystone high-elevation tree species occurring across much of western North America, yet it has been listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act due to rapid population declines and extensive ongoing pressures from white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae), and increasing temperature and aridity associated with climate change. Past research has shown that whitebark pine mortality is more likely in hotter and drier sites, but no…

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