{"id":57902,"date":"2016-01-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-students-research-helps-protect-grassland-birds\/"},"modified":"2016-01-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T00:00:00","slug":"uri-students-research-helps-protect-grassland-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2016\/01\/uri-students-research-helps-protect-grassland-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 student\u2019s research helps protect grassland birds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 6, 2016 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 junior Charlotte Steeves has always had a strong connection to the natural world and a desire to protect it. The conservation biology major did just that as a 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellow, recently completing a six-month project to study and monitor grassland-nesting birds in an effort to improve their chances of survival in southern New England. <\/p>\n


\n\tA resident of Pepperell, Mass., Steeves said that birds like bobolinks and savannah sparrows nest on the ground in overgrown agricultural fields, where their nests are often destroyed when farmers use tractors to cut hay in the fields.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe haying happens during the prime nesting season for the birds, which is why the birds are declining annually at greater than 2.5 percent,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen the farmers mow their fields before the birds have a chance to finish raising their young, the nests get mowed over and the babies are killed.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tSo Steeves partnered with the Dartmouth Natural Resource Trust to monitor a 26-acre field it owns. Her goal was to determine where most of the birds were believed to be nesting and which 10-acre parcel could be mowed by a local farmer.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMy job was to survey the field every morning to determine the areas of highest bird activity, and that data was used to determine which 10 acres to set aside for the farmer,\u201d Steeves said. \u201cIt turned out that the areas with the thickest grass were where most of the birds were found.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThanks to her efforts, Steeves helped two pairs of bobolinks and at least three pairs of savannah sparrows successfully raise their young.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cBy mid-June, the grass was taller than me, and the birds were elusive and remained hidden,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I went into the grass, the parents would freak out, so that\u2019s how I knew they were on their nests. By July, I saw little fledglings venturing outside of their nests.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe 溏心vlog免费B站 student hopes the Natural Resource Trust can use the same methods next year to decrease the mortality rate of the two species and grow the population of the birds in the area.<\/p>\n


\n\tSteeves\u2019 research was supported by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows program, a unique initiative designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 20th year, it is based at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of the Environment and Life Sciences. Students are paired with a mentor and research staff to help them gain skills relevant to their academic major and future occupations.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe program really helped me decide that this kind of research is something I definitely want to pursue in the future \u2013 not necessarily birds, but the methods I used to monitor them could be used for other kinds of wildlife,\u201d said Steeves, whose program mentor was 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Peter Paton. \u201cBefore this project, I didn\u2019t really know how to analyze data to understand patterns and trends. It was a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWhen Steeves graduates from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2017, she plans to attend graduate school to earn a master\u2019s degree in conservation biology, and she may also pursue a degree in hydrology, a discipline she fell in love with thanks to a 溏心vlog免费B站 class taught by Professor Arthur Gold. Ultimately she wants to follow in the footsteps of her father, who uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to study watersheds for the U.S. Geological Survey.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI want to use GIS to track populations of different species and use that information to determine the best way to manage those populations and protect them from human development,\u201d Steeves said. \u201cI want to dedicate my life to protecting the natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n(Photo provided by Charlotte Steeves)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 6, 2016 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 junior Charlotte Steeves has always had a strong connection to the natural world and a desire to protect it. The conservation biology major did just that as a 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellow, recently completing a six-month project to study and monitor grassland-nesting birds in an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}