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How healthy are Mt. Tam's natural resources?

 

Climate-vulnerable Birds

Steller's Jay, of Climate-vulnerable Birds | Photo by Charles Wohlers
Steller's Jay, of Climate-vulnerable Birds | Photo by Charles Wohlers
Condition: Good
Trend: No Change
Confidence: High

Summary

The overall condition of climate change-vulnerable birds is Good.

Thirty-three species were considered vulnerable to climate change when using a published assessment for California or by examining projected changes in their local distributions (see References below). Of these, the vast majority were in Good condition in the One Tam area of focus.

This may be because the climatic and vegetation conditions used to project changes due to climate are not yet occurring in the One Tam region, or if they are there is a lag time in bird response. It is also possible that some species can adapt to changing conditions and hence not behave as predicted by changes in climate and vegetation alone.

Results for tidal marsh- and grassland-associated species were uncertain. For tidal marsh species in particular it would be desirable to obtain condition data given the added impact of sea level rise.

 

resources

References

Gardali, T., Seavy, N. E., DiGaudio, R.T., & Comrack, L. A. (2012). A climate change vulnerability assessment of California’s at-risk birds. PLoS ONE, 7(3), e29507. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029507.

Climate birds table