The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation today announced a $1.12 million grant to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) and the American Bird Conservancy. A partnership between UMCES Appalachian Laboratory researchers and the Appalachian Mountain Joint Venture will apply big data to conservation planning for the benefit of birds and people in the Appalachian Mountains.
The researchers will use remote sensing and interpretable machine learning to characterize aspects of forests and landscape structure that provide habitat for birds during migration through the Appalachian Mountains. They will apply this information to forest management planning through a collaborative process that balances the habitat needs of birds with the objectives of local human communities. The research and process will ultimately transform our ability to sustain healthy bird populations throughout the Appalachian region.
"Conservation planning to restore and sustain migratory bird populations has been occurring for many years," said Emily Cohen, an associate professor at UMCES. "But these efforts have been singularly focused on increasing habitats for birds during the breeding season, while habitat needs during migration have been largely overlooked. The focus of this project is to provide the information necessary to include migratory habitat needs, along with breeding, into planning efforts and then to develop those plans together with the communities living in those areas."
This research is one of 10 projects receiving funding under the Partnership to Advance Conservation Science and Practice (PACSP) program, a first-of-its-kind collaboration between NSF and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Now in its second year, the program is designed to catalyze deep collaboration between researchers advancing basic science and conservation partners engaging in on-the-ground conservation.
The projects focus on a range of species—from migrating songbirds and grizzly bears to Venus flytraps and the Hawaiian honeycreeper—and the outcomes will have far-reaching implications for biodiversity and conservation, policy and the economy.
"The fundamental knowledge these projects create, even though related to specific species, will unlock innovative conservation efforts across a broader range of threatened species and ecosystems," said Lara Littlefield, executive director for programs and partnerships at the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. "For instance, studying whether some microorganisms in mosquitoes can help limit the spread of malaria among birds in Hawaii could ultimately limit disease spread among other animals more broadly."
Each project extends basic science into on-the-ground conservation to address critical knowledge and data gaps, enabling greater real-world impact to benefit species and ecosystems.
"The unique partnerships this program creates forge a roadmap to broader conservation action by uniting the skills, expertise and tools needed to address the most urgent threats to our natural world," said Susan Marqusee, NSF Assistant Director for Biological Sciences. "These projects also will engage the public, policymakers, law enforcement and others in conservation through education, outreach and other broader impacts."
The awarded project focus areas include:
- Improving mosquito breeding to create non-viable offspring and thus reduce transmission of avian malaria to Hawaiian honeycreepers
- Improving forest fire management through study of Venus Flytrap as indicator species
- Creating a model to monitor long-term impacts of conservation actions on the genetic diversity of grizzly bear populations
- Disrupting illegal wildlife trade by enabling molecular identification of sharks, rays and turtles
- Modeling ghost genes (genetic material historically transferred from extinct or nearly extinct species to living ones) of Gulf Coast canids
- Restoring habitat of grassland birds through development of Integrated Population Model using data from breeding and non-breeding grounds of three declining species
- Converting urban turf lawns to native plants to bolster ecosystem services and understand conservation potential
- Conserving stream biodiversity by studying the impact of climate and land use changes on the imperiled eastern hellbender, an Appalachian salamander species sensitive to low dissolved oxygen levels
- Developing AI for cost-effective wildlife identification, tracking and behavior analysis for marine animals through study on manatees
- Using big data about the ecology of the Appalachian Mountains to co-develop migratory bird conservation efforts with landowners and land managers to balance habitat needs with community objectives.
Media Contact:
Katie Ross, Communications Coordinator
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
kross@umces.edu
