A male Western Tanager by Bob Walker. Learn what the future may hold for the birds and forests of the Pajarito Plateau at a talk at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 6, at the Los Alamos Nature Center. Courtesy/PEECPEEC News:
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently published a paper about bird populations on the Pajarito Plateau, finding declines in the number and diversity of bird populations at nine sites in northern New Mexico.
Jeanne Fair, who led the research team, will share her research and discuss what the future may hold for the birds and forests of the Pajarito Plateau at a talk at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 6, at the Los Alamos Nature Center. This event is free and open to the public.
Fair’s team conducted this study from 2003 to 2013 on several hundred acres on the Pajarito Plateau. It revealed a 73 percent decrease in the abundance of birds and a 45 percent decrease in the diversity of birds. At this talk, learn more about the study, what the results can tell us about our forests and the next steps for the research team.
Fair is a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory with a focus on epidemiology and animal disease ecology. She is the principal investigator for a long-term research project on the impacts of contaminants on avian populations and Editor-in-Chief of the “Guidelines for the Use of Wild Birds in Research.” In 2013, she served as Program Manager for the Long-Term Strategy for Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability and from 2013 to 2016 she was on assignment as a science program manager with the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
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