The development of Alaska’s oil and gas infrastructure has reduced the number of successful nesting birds. This has been reported by the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Alaska is one of the most important oil-bearing states in the United States. It is also a home for many animals in the Arctic and subarctic regions that need protection in a warming climate.
In this context, a group of scientists led by Martin Robards decided to find out how oil infrastructure affected the breeding parameters of breeding birds in Prudhoe Bay between 2003 and 2019. The coastal plain of Prudhoe Bay is one of the most important breeding grounds for birds in the world. Some then migrate via the United States to winter in Central and South America and even Africa, while others cross the Pacific Ocean and fly to Russia, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica.
The authors examined 1,265 shorebird nests, 378 songbird nests, and 231 waterfowl nests. They found that a burrow’s survival rate decreased significantly as it approached heavily exploited oil infrastructure, which had previously not been found in previous short-term studies. This is likely to be affected by: habitat degradation due to changing hydrological conditions and road dust, vehicle and aircraft traffic, noise, air pollution, and increased predator populations including crows and arctic foxes.
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