Research Team Including UMD Scientist to Study Rapid Degradation of Chesapeake Bay Habitat
Populations of birds like saltmarsh sparrows are rapidly declining as rising sea levels impact the health of the habitats where they make their homes.
Image Credit: M. Evans
Marsh birds such as seaside sparrows and salt marsh sparrows are in decline throughout the world, with some estimates suggesting their populations are falling by 9% annually; many species may be extinct by 2050. The primary reason is habitat loss, as marshes disappear under the pressures of sea-level rise.
To help reverse this trend, a University of Maryland professor and partners at Towson University and the National Audubon Society. Professor Andy Baldwin in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology will study the impacts of a salt marsh restoration project on shrinking bird populations in the Chesapeake Bay, and the key landscape patterns needed to support the birds that live there.
"This project is unusual in that it links site-scale ecological restoration actions to animal populations at the landscape scale, a holistic perspective fundamental to reversing declines of threatened species," Baldwin said.
