Dec. 19, 2012 — Although climate change may
alter the distributions of many species, changes in land use may compound these
effects. Now, a new study by PRBO Conservation Science (PRBO) researcher Dennis
Jongsomjit and colleagues suggests that the effects of future housing
development may be as great or greater than those of climate change for many
bird species. In fact, some species projected to expand their distributions
with climate change may actually lose ground when future development is brought
into the picture.
The study, "Between a rock and a hard
place: The impacts of climate change and housing development on breeding birds
in California," appears online in the journal Landscape Ecology.
Conservationists have long known that changing
land use and development may pose a major threat to wildlife through habitat
loss and degradation. Yet, many recent studies have focused solely on how the
changing climate will impact species. It is now clear that focusing on only one
of these threats may underestimate the actual risk to species from future
environmental changes.
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