This year, the report has been led by young conservationists, writing its forward and presenting it. The report will be the third of its kind, with one now published every three years. This blog will focus more on how human impacts are affecting the UK’s birds, which is an important topic in the report.
The State of Nature Report 2019 covers seven ‘drivers of change’, aspects which affect bird populations, as well as plants and other animals. These are agricultural management, climate change, urbanisation, pollution, hydrological change, woodland management and invasive non-native species.
One of the largest aspects that the report covers is agricultural management. In the UK, a huge 72 percent of our land is managed as farmland. These are habitats in themselves, with birds such as Yellowhammer, Skylark and Cirl Bunting living in this environment. However, it is due to the rapid intensification of farmland management that farmland birds have declined, more than in any other habitat: by 54 percent since 1970. Despite few records of change over time, it has been widely noticed that the use of pesticides especially has increased over the last 40 years. This is the case in the majority of the country. In Scotland, farmland birds are faring better than in the rest of the UK, due to less dramatic changes in land management.
Another large impact on birds covered in the report is the effect of urbanisation. This consists of natural habitat being destroyed, and converted into houses, shops, factories and buildings, which often fragments and isolates bird populations. Thanks to increasing awareness, some communities have made their environment better for birds, by creating nesting sites and providing bird feeders, and as a result, many songbirds species thrive because of this.
Due to the growing abundance of bird feeders in urban areas, and other factors associated with the built environment, scientists have questioned the health of urban birds. Bird feeders may contribute to the spread of avian diseases because they attract large numbers of birds to feed in a small area, increasing the risk of disease transmission. The emergence of Finch-trichomonosis has caused Greenfinch populations to decline by 65 percent since 2006, with a similar though less severe pattern of decline seen in Chaffinch. In addition, it has been discovered that urban birds may show higher levels of stress than observed in populations elsewhere. For example, research shows that urban Blackbirds have shortened telomeres; telomeres are the ends of chromosomes, and their length has been linked to longevity and general health. This is a worrying sign for our songbirds.
It is not just birds which have seen dramatic changes. The report measures the trends of the populations of the 696 terrestrial and freshwater fish species. The abundance of these species has exhibited a significant decline of 13 percent between 1970 and 2016. Over this period, 41 percent of these species had strong or moderate decreases, 26 percent showed strong or moderate increases and 33 percent showed little change in population.
When this report is released, people up and down the country should take action. Surveyors and volunteers on reserves will be aware of the wildlife populations in their areas, recording them, improving habitat management and helping the species which are in strongest decline to recover.
You may feel that change is out of our hands, but there are things we can do on our doorstep. This could be as simple as hanging bird feeders and nest boxes and cleaning them regularly. Also, you could create a pond out of an old container, or plant wildflowers. You could even get in touch with local development schemes, and advise them to make rooftop gardens, and put Swift nest boxes around their buildings. Most importantly, recording is key: by keeping a count of the wildlife you see in your garden, town or local patch, and submitting it to organisations like BTO, you are collecting valuable data, and in turn contributing to the next report.
The byproduct of all this is a harmonious coexistence between people and wildlife: an improved state of mind, sustainable living and better connection between communities.
Kabir Kaul
kaulofthewild.com
@Kaulofthewilduk
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