In the map below, each colored polygon represents a different stratum within Bird Conservation Region (BCR) 17 – Badlands and Prairies. This allows us to make statistically valid comparisons across different land management units, which we refer to as strata (singular stratum). Whether we survey in a National Forest, National Park, or on private land, we use the same protocol to count birds. IMBCR allows multiple land managers to monitor birds at randomly-selected locations with the same methodology. A design for quality data and informative comparisons Keep reading for a brief overview of IMBCR’S unique study design, to explore two of IMBCR’s core data products, and to find out how you can use this freely-available data. IMBCR data allows them to address conservation concerns, such as determining the impact of disturbance or restoration, or selecting focal management species. Meanwhile, a cadre of land managers and researchers are behind computer screens using the data to understand bird population dynamics and make management decisions. DOI: 10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2007.02.001.A technician with Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions counts birds at dawn. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 32(1):19-28. Birds of a feather: Interpolating distribution patterns of urban birds. Scalar effects of vegetation on bird communities in an urbanizing desert ecosystem. Invasion, competition, and biodiversity loss in urban ecosystems. The conservation value of residential yards: Linking birds and people. Homeowner associations as a vehicle for promoting native urban biodiversity. Landscape and Urban Planning 159(Mar):48-61. Decadal declines in bird abundance and diversity in urban riparian zones. Long-term effects of land-use change on bird communities depend on spatial scale and land-use type. The more things change: Species losses detected in Phoenix despite stability in bird–socioeconomic relationships. Vegetation surveys at CAP LTER ripirain-area bird-monitoring locations in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area (2013).Bird surveys along the Salt River in and near the greater Phoenix metropolitan area: 2012-2013.Point-count bird censusing: long-term monitoring of bird abundance and diversity along the Salt River in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, ongoing since 2013.Point-count bird censusing: bird abundance and diversity in CAP LTER Phoenix Area Social Survey neighborhoods throughout the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, 2006-2016. Point-count bird censusing: long-term monitoring of bird abundance and diversity in central Arizona-Phoenix, ongoing since 2000.Censuses are conducted in the winter and spring to capture the bird community at the peaks of activity, and each birding location is visited by three different professional birders each season who identify all birds seen and heard in the sampling radius. Many monitoring locations are co-located with other CAP LTER long-term monitoring programs, such as the Ecological Survey of Central Arizona, ground-dwelling arthropod monitoring, and Salt River Biodiversity, allowing investigators to leverage data from multiple monitoring efforts. The point count locations span a diversity of habitats including urban, suburban, rural, industrial areas, parks, agricultural fields, and native Sonoran desert. This backdrop provides an ideal setting to monitor biodiversity changes in response to urbanization, and the CAP LTER has been using a standardized point-count protocol to monitor the bird population in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area and surrounding Sonoran desert region since 2000. Over the past half-century, the greater Phoenix metropolitan area has been one of the fastest growing regions in the US, experiencing rapid urban expansion in addition to urban intensification. In fact, many urbanization studies substitute time for space in an attempt to document impacts of urbanization through time. However, the effects of urbanization on biodiversity are only minimally documented as long-term datasets reporting temporal changes in species composition and species gains and/or losses are required. Although many species of wildlife inhabit and may even thrive in urban environments, the density of bird species appears to be highly responsive to alteration of land cover in addition to being reduced in cities relative to surrounding areas. Urban areas are expanding and intensifying worldwide, resulting in modified wildlife habitat where native vegetation is replaced by structures, roads, and other urban features.
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