Why should we care? | birdsclimatechange

Why should we care?

Before trying to understand how birds are affected by environmental change, and how we can possibly ameliorate this impact, another valid question to ask is: why should we care? If a bird species goes extinct, we would probably not notice it unless someone told us about it. Understanding and preventing adverse effects of environmental change requires large amounts of money and resources, what would speak for these resources not being better invested somewhere else?

In order to care about something, and motivate spending resources on something, we need to attach some direct or indirect value to it. The value of birds can range from purely selfish values, such as valuing the taste of chicken, via practical vaues, such as appreciating the value of crop pest control carried out by birds, to more abstract values, such as valuing the very existance of birds. Some may even argue that there is no value to birds. Answering the question of why we should care is impossible without understanding how and why people value birds.

A very popular way of framing the value of nature these days is the concept of ecosystem services, in other words, services provided to us, for free, by nature. This concept was established by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Normally, ecosystem services are sorted into four different categories: supporting services, provisioning services, regulating services and cultural services.

Supporting services are required for the ecosystem to function and form the basis upon which other ecosystem services depend. Supporting services include things like nutrient cycling, a process that birds can form an essential part of. For example, one study found that islands in the Gulf of California with nesting seabirds had higher primary productivity than islands without seabirds, as the seabirds' guano deposits brought essential nutrients to the islands (Anderson and Polis 1999). This demonstrates how birds can be essential to a functioning, healthy ecosystem.

Provisioning services refer to material that we harvest from ecosystems. Here an obvious example is of course birds shot for food. Birds can also indirectly provide provisioning services through for example eating crop pests, which may increase crop yield. Here a clear, economic value of birds can be identified.

Regulating services include ecosystem processes that provide benefits through the regulation of other ecosystem processes. Regulating services include things like water purification and waste decomposition. Birds often play an important role in waste decompositon through scavenging on carcasses. In India, population declines of vultures meant that suddenly feral dogs experienced a lot less competition for scavenging opportunities, leading to a rapid increase in feral dogs, with the consequence of increases in rabies outbreaks and attacks on humans. This also clearly represents a tangible value of birds to humans. Birds also function on seed dispersers, significantly increasing the productivity of forests and other habitats.

Cultural services are less tangible and were defined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as “the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences”. Bird watching is an example of a cultural service provided to us by birds, as well as the sound of bird song. They can also play important parts in religious imagery or cultural narratives.

It is clear that birds provide us with direct benefits, often of large monetary value, as well as cultural enrichment. This insight alone may be enough to motivate why we should care about how birds are affected by environmental change and also to justify investing significant resources into understanding these issues and attempting to prevent them, even if you have absolutely no interest in birds yourself.

Lastly, one may also argue that regardless of any benefits birds provide us with, they have unquestionable intrinsic value. Who is to say that humans are entitled to use the planet as they want, with any consequences to other organisms regarded as secondary? One may suggest that it is time to reconsider the superiority or humans, and care about animals and plants in the same way we care about each other.

Sources:

Anderson, W.B. and G.A. Polis, 1999. Nutrient fluxes from water to land: seabirds affect plant nutrient status on Gulf of California islands. Oecologia: 118: 324-332.

BOU, 2012. Ecosystem services: do we need birds? The proceedings of the BOU's 2012 Annual Conference supported by BTO, JNCC, University of Hull, University of Newcastle and University of Sheffield. Available at: http://www.bou.org.uk/bouprocnet/ecosystem-services-do-we-need-birds/

Hill, J., n.d. Birds and Ecosystem Services. Available at: http://www.environmentalscience.org/birds-ecosystem-services

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Findings. 2005: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

Whelan, C.J., Wenny, D.G. and Marquis, R.J., 2008. Ecosystem Services Provided by Birds. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 1134: 25–60