[BCNnet] FW: [BCAlist] Birds could signal mass extinction ScienceDaily Oct 12 2010

[Donnie Dann]

Bird conservationists,

 

This is from Ellie Cohen from Pt. Reyes, to the Bird Conservation Alliance,
of which BCN is a member.  It's pretty depressing but important to know.

 

Donnie Dann

Highland Park/Lake County

donniebird at yahoo.com

 

 


Birds <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101011161639.htm>  Could
Signal Mass Extinction


ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2010) - The first detailed measurements of current
extinction rates for a specific region have shown that birds are the best
group to use to track the losses. The study also reveals Britain may be
losing species over ten times faster than records suggest, and the speed of
loss is probably increasing: the losses from England alone may exceed one
species every two weeks. 

 

The study, by Oxford University researchers, shows that many types of
obscure organism in Britain are going extinct at the same rate as the birds
-- evidence supporting fears of a global mass extinction. A report of the
research is published in an upcoming issue of the journal Biological
Conservation as countries prepare to meet in Japan 18-29 October to discuss
biodiversity conservation targets.

 

'Biodiversity loss is arguably much more serious and more permanent than
climate change,' said Clive Hambler of Oxford University's Department of
Zoology, lead author of the research. 

 

'But it's impossible to know if policy targets to reduce the loss are being
met without accurate measures of extinction rates. Until now, we had only
crude estimates for a very few types of organism. Now we've got evidence
that many groups of living things -- lichens, bugs, moths, fish, plants and
so on -- are going extinct at a very similar rate to the birds.'

 

Using Britain's uniquely detailed natural history records, the researchers
found that 1-5% of the region's species in many groups were lost since 1800,
with higher losses in the Twentieth Century compared to the Nineteenth.
Using further data from the USA and across the whole globe, the researchers
show that the patterns of extinction in Britain are likely to be typical of
those found on land and freshwater elsewhere.

 

Mr Hambler said: 'The birds are beautiful creatures, but they are also
diverse, and many of them are specialised to particular habitats. This makes
them sensitive to changes in their environment -- such as loss of mature
trees, or the drying out of swampy ground, or coastal development. And what
makes them really special for monitoring extinction is that they are also
exceptionally easy to study, anywhere in the world -- so we can detect
declines in their populations long before we notice losses of the more
obscure things like slime moulds or mosses. It's no coincidence they can
signal environmental change.'

 

'The underlying reason for the similarity of extinction rates in birds and
the other living things is that habitat loss affects them in the same way.
Our work supports the use of birds to indicate extinction rates in Britain,
the USA and globally, and they should now be tried in places such as
tropical forests where the bulk of other species will never be recorded.'

 

'The recorded extinctions in any region are just the tip of the iceberg,
because there are not enough observers,' said Mr Hambler. For example, in
March this year the British government's advisory body, Natural England,
reported about 500 species lost from England since 1800. 'The losses
reported by Natural England are under 0.5% per century, from England's
55,000 species,' notes Mr Hambler. 'Our research suggests that the actual
losses could be over ten times this number, with about one species going
extinct in England every fortnight.'

 

Natural England also reported species losses in England had apparently
declined in recent decades, but the Oxford study suggests that this is not
the case. Hambler and colleagues found there are about 1000 endangered
species on the brink of extinction in Britain -- indeed many of these may
already be extinct.

 

'People tend to be hesitant in declaring extinction, which leads to problems
assessing the current rate,' said Mr Hambler. 'Many ancient and important
habitats in Britain are threatened today because of human activity and
population growth -- whether it's an increase in water use, growing use of
wood fuel, or the growth of urban sprawl. Despite conservationists' efforts
it's very likely extinction rates will continue to rise in Britain and
globally for many years. These losses will impact on human welfare, and I'd
say conservation needs a profile and resources even bigger than climate
change.'

 

Alongside studies of birds, the researchers believe that recording rates of
habitat loss will provide a good, simple measure of some elements of
biodiversity loss.

Mr Hambler said: 'This work strengthens the claim that the world is
suffering a mass extinction. We can now be much more confident that across
the planet the less conspicuous and less well-known species are going
extinct at a similar high rate to that already witnessed in birds, fish and
amphibians.'

 

 

Journal Reference:

1.                      Clive Hambler, Peter A. Henderson, Martin R.
Speight. Extinction rates, extinction-prone habitats, and indicator groups
in Britain and at larger scales. Biological Conservation, 2010; DOI:
10.1016/j.biocon.2010.09.004
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.09.004> 

 

 

Best-

Ellie

 

------------

Ellie Cohen, President and CEO

PRBO Conservation Science

3820 Cypress Drive, Suite 11

Petaluma, CA 94954

 

707-781-2555, ext. 318

 www.prbo.org <http://www.prbo.org/cms/index.php>   |  Please follow PRBO on
Facebook
<http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/PRBOConservationScience?ref=search> !

PRBO conserves birds, other wildlife and ecosystems through innovative
scientific research and outreach.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://screamer.ece.iit.edu/pipermail/bcnnet/attachments/20101013/cb34c34b/attachment-0001.html