Write Up: Birds and Health
In the start of the observations, I was worried I wouldn’t hit 40 observations of birds. However, it was easier than I had thought since birds are everywhere all the time. They even chirp and sing at night. While sampling the sites along the LA river, the most vertebrates seen were birds and they made up the most of the observational data. This was probably due to the amount of insects and plants available in each site. While plants and vertebrates didn’t share the same H’ trend among the sites, insects and vertebrates shared H’ trends that would suggest there was a relationship between them. Additionally, many of the sights showed very few tertiary consumers, totaling only 5 for all the sites combined.
Birds are important to the health of an environment. It provides a lot of vigor for an environment, contains different level of organization between the trophic levels and within bird groups and are very resilient and adaptable. Birds help with soil turning, as birds forage for food they rip up the plants and make it easier to decompose to the soil. They help control insect and pest populations, help decompose dead animals and spread seeds of plants (Jacob Hill, Environmental Science). In terms of organization, birds can have their own hierarchy in an cramped environment, such as the waterfowl in Almansor Park. Additionally, there are many different types of birds, some exclusively eat insects and others may only eat plants, and this shows different levels of organization. Finally, for resilience, birds can be quite adaptable. In Lower Arroyo, some resort to nesting under the Colorado bridge, and in Almansor many of the birds learned to rely on humans for food. This way, both species of birds are able to continue to grow and reproduce.
Birds are an important part of the biosphere, just like humans and biodiversity, it’s a cog in the machine. If the health of birds are good and performing well, then the biosphere are improves and works to continue to sustain life.
“Birds & Ecosystem Services.” EnvironmentalScience.org, www.environmentalscience.org/birds-ecosystem-services.
Comentarios
Añade un comentario