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Environmental Change Environments change over time, inev

Environments change over time, inevitably, and this leads to changes in bird populations (Short S29). As human populations expand, and change the face of the earth, itÆs natural inhabitants are forced into smaller and smaller ecological niches, and in many cases, their numbers decline and entire species are lost. Continued destruction of woodlands for farming, timber production, or housing developments has a significant impact on bird populations, which often shows up as a gradient moving from a rural to an urban setting, the birds being more abundant and showing more diversity in their natural habitat, and whole species declining in numbers, or disappearing entirely as their specific environment is lost.

In Colorado, for example, red-winged blackbirds prefer to nest in wetlands, and a survey showed that birds breeding in their natural habitat of wetlands and tallgrass prairie, produced more offspring than those breeding in hayfields and roadside ditches because of human invasion of their natural habitat (i.e. farming and housing) (Vierling 403). Tallgrass prairies in the Boulder Valley are flood-irrigated, and hayfields make it difficult for birds to predict how long they will have sufficient cover to raise their young before mowing, so provide less suitable breeding habitats (405). Wetlands provide more secure breeding opportunities, and their loss to farming and housing developments may lead to a decline in the red-winged blackbird in the United States. Similar results have been found in other states where bird populations have been monitored, such as California (Short S29-S30), Idaho (Douglas, Ratti, Black, and Alldredge 485-500), and Pennsylvania (Croonquist and Brooks 65-69).

To assess the effects of human intrusion into natural habitats on bird abundance and diversity, studies are conducted in which the total number of birds, and the various species present are counted. These can be one-time c

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Environmental Change Environments change over time, inev. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:14, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1708662.html