WCS 3-Sentence Science

Adirondack’s Boreal Birds Heading for Lean Times

December 13, 2019

CREDIT: STEPHEN LANGDON

Each year, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists publish more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and papers. “WCS 3-Sentence Science” is a regular tip-sheet — in bite sized helpings — of some of this published work.

Here we present work by WCS’s Molly Cross on how climate change is impacting boreal birds in New York’s Adirondack Park.

1. Researchers looked at how climate change and other factors will affect occupancy patterns of eight boreal bird species living in the Adirondack Park in New York State — the southern edge of their range.
2. They found that for most species, occupancy patterns are best described by climate drivers and appear most likely to colonize sites that have lower levels of precipitation and a high degree of connectivity, and they tend to persist in sites that are warmer in the breeding season and have low and less variable precipitation in the winter.
3. Given climate change predictions for both temperature and precipitation, it is likely that habitat structural changes over the long term may alter these relationships in the future.

Study and Journal: “Relative contribution of climate and non-climate drivers in determining dynamic rates of boreal birds at the edge of their range” from PLOS ONE
WCS Co-Author(s): Molly Cross, Director, Climate Change Adaptation

For more information, contact: Stephen Sautner, 718–220–3682, ssautner@wcs.org.