On the horizon: news from the frontiers of science
Scientists forecast solar outbursts, why ants are selfless road workers, and how farmers can benefit birds.
from the May 31, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Birds benefit from trees on farms
Just a few trees in an otherwise cleared patch of farmland can be a big help in preserving threatened tropical birds, a new study shows.
Researchers at Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology reached this conclusion after trying to gauge the impact of forest loss on bird populations in Costa Rica. They conducted their work in a region where coffee plantations had replaced once-verdant rain forest. Previous studies found that the plantations appeared to host up to 200 species, suggesting that birds and coffee plants got along just fine. But those results were based on spotting birds as they flew through the plantation or were captured there. They said nothing about how much time the birds spent among the coffee plants. So a team led by Stanford scientist Cagan Sekercioglu captured birds, put radio tags on them, and then tracked their whereabouts over two seasons – eight months total.
They found that birds in the plantations actually spent much of their time in the few trees, or stands of trees along creeks and rivers, and not among the coffee plants themselves. The small patches of trees were critical to some of the birds, the team found. Thus, if farmers leave small stands of trees to dot their plantations, they could help preserve endangered bird species.
"Even modest restoration efforts ... can help these birds more than you would think," Dr. Sekercioglu says. The results appear in the April issue of the journal Conservation Biology.
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