A new WCS-led study analyzing 17 years of migratory bird nesting data in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, revealed that nest survival was significantly decreased near high-use oil and gas infrastructure and noise, dust, traffic, air pollution and other related. disturbances Prudhoe Bay is an energy-intensive development site and is located on the Arctic coastal plain, one of the world’s most important breeding grounds for birds. Millions of birds nest here, some then migrating across every state in the nation to wintering grounds in Central and South America, including Africa, and others crossing the Pacific Ocean to Russia, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the antartida.
The findings, described in the journal avian biology, comes as the US recently approved the $8 billion Willow oil project, a controversial long-term effort to drill in the largest remaining wilderness area in Alaska in the US, the National Petroleum Reserve. (NPR-A) of 36,875 square miles west of Prudhoe Bay. Willow’s planned infrastructure borders the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, one of five regions within NPR-A that have been withdrawn from production due to their significant ecological importance or subsistence value, in this case waterfowl and shorebirds that they nest, as well as caribou.
Said Martin Robards, regional director of WCS’s Arctic Beringia Program and an author of the study: “Birds that breed in the tundra face short breeding seasons, harsh weather conditions and, now, unpredictable, variable and rapidly changing environmental conditions. caused by climate change Furthermore, as we demonstrate here, those that breed in industrial areas are also affected by human activities The urgency to better understand these relationships and mitigate the impacts cannot be expressed strongly enough, given the widely declining of these species, our national and global obligations to protect migratory birds, and that the potential impacts are great.
The research team assessed factors influencing reproductive parameters of breeding birds at Prudhoe Bay between 2003 and 2019. They monitored 1,265 shorebird nests, 378 passerine (songbird) nests, and 231 waterbird nests. They found that nest survival decreased significantly closer to high-use infrastructure, which had not been previously detected in previous short-term studies. The authors note that long-term data sets are rare in the Arctic, but are crucial for understanding the impacts on breeding birds of both climate change and increased anthropogenic activities.
Factors associated with industrial development that may directly or indirectly affect nesting include: habitat degradation through altered hydrology and road dust, vehicle and aircraft traffic, noise, air pollution and increased populations of development-associated nesting predators, including Glaucous Gulls, Ravens, and Arctic Fox. , and other species.
Said John Calvelli, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for WCS: “In the face of current uncertainty, to protect migratory birds, the US government. Special Areas.”
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