APRIL 29,
2019
Over 11
field seasons, between 1999 and 2010, ornithologist Cagan Sekercioglu trekked
through the forests and coffee fields of Costa Rica to study how tropical birds
were faring in a changing agricultural landscape. Through painstaking banding
of individual birds, Sekercioglu asked whether the expansion of coffee
plantations is reducing tropical bird biodiversity.
The
answer, published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, is no. And yes. Sun coffee plantations
are able to host a surprising number of bird species, even more if the plantation has
some tree cover. But the plantations are not enough to maintain bird
biodiversity.
"It's
two sides of a coin," Sekercioglu says. "These tropical agricultural
habitats that are mostly deforested still maintain large numbers of tropical
species. Even small patches of trees can make a difference and help some
species. But the flip side of the coin is, in the long term, most of these
species are still declining."
The only
way
The seeds
of this project were planted in 1996 when Sekercioglu, then an undergraduate at
Harvard University, was studying the effects of logging on tropical bird
communities in Uganda. "I wanted to continue that research in grad
school," he says, "but I wanted something long term. Not just a quick
snapshot, but a multiyear study where I could look at long-term population
change."
Such
long-term studies are rare, partially because of the research timeline of a
typical graduate student. Doctoral students in biology may be able to collect
four years of data before compiling their research into a dissertation to
complete their degree. But Sekercioglu wanted more than four years. To get the
long-term trends he wanted, he needed at least six years. Ten would be even
better.
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