Climate change isn’t the only threat facing California’s birds. Over the course of the 20th century, urban sprawl and agricultural development have dramatically changed the landscape of the state, forcing many native species to adapt to new and unfamiliar habitats.

In a new study, biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, use current and historical bird surveys to reveal how land use change has amplified — and in some cases mitigated — the impacts of climate change on bird populations in Los Angeles and the Central Valley.

The study found that urbanization and much hotter and drier conditions in L.A. have driven declines in more than one-third of bird species in the region over the past century. Meanwhile, agricultural development and a warmer and slightly wetter climate in the Central Valley have had more mixed impacts on biodiversity.

“It’s pretty common in studies of the impact of climate change on biodiversity to only model the effects of climate and not consider the effects of land use change,” said study senior author Steven Beissinger, a professor of environmental science, policy and management at UC Berkeley and a researcher at the campus’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ). “But we’re finding that the individual responses of different bird species to these threats are likely to promote unpredictable changes that complicate forecasts of extinction risk.”

The study, publishing today in the journal Science Advances, presents the latest results from UC Berkeley’s Grinnell Resurvey Project, an effort to revisit and document birds and small mammals at sites first surveyed a century ago by UC Berkeley professor Joseph Grinnell.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn0250

the US needs to really invest in high speed public transit to cut down on the number of drivers there are if we want to meaningfully cut down on fossil fuel consumption and the greenhouse gases associated with it. the current sprawling of society makes it really hard for somebody to find a way to work that doesn't involve driving.

Animal populations fall in major cities as they are built. I’m kinda shocked it wasn’t a bigger drop. I leave my pastures I alone most of the year and just mow paths. Most of the year I only see a few of birds other than eagles, hawks, and the like, but in the winter smaller birds flock to the feeders and I get hundreds. Most people can’t not use the land they own. I’m not sure what the answer is for cities. Pesticide use probably isn’t helping. In the agricultural areas I think that is much more important in the US. https://ocm.auburn.edu/newsroom/news_articles/2020/10/141359-miao-bird-study.php#:~:text=When%20birds%20eat%20the%20pesticide,decrease%20birds'%20abilities%20to%20reproduce.

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