Conservation Conversations: Virtual Learn About Birds (LAB) Conference 2021 Winners (24Aug21) скачать в хорошем качестве

Conservation Conversations: Virtual Learn About Birds (LAB) Conference 2021 Winners (24Aug21)

On Tuesday, 24 August 2021 BirdLife South Africa's weekly webinar series ‘Conservation Conversations with BirdLife South Africa’ hosted Kailen Padayachee and Shamiso Banda, winners of the 2021 Virtual Learn About Birds (LAB) Conference best student presentations. Kailen Padayachee: Do you love birds of prey? Are you concerned about dangerous pesticides like DDT? Then join Kailen Padayachee, a PhD student from the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology to learn more about how one of the world’s most famous and destructive pesticides has been monitored in global raptor populations over decades. Kailen will take us on a journey to understand how the hundreds of studies focusing on this toxic compound in global birds of prey have been conducted over more than 100 years. With the vast amount of information available and mounting evidence of decreasing DDT levels, could this deadly compound still pose a threat to global raptor populations? With growing interest in how scientific research is distributed globally, Kailen will also shed some light on how research has unfolded and whether there is any disparity between investigations of this type of pesticide between the global north and global south. Shamiso Banda: Have you ever wondered what seabirds eat and how their diet may change when temperatures are warmer? Many seabirds eat a combination of cephalopods (squid), fish and crustaceans. Cephalopods are fed on by many marine top predators, making them a very important prey item. As such, Shamiso for her MSc study, set out to find how cephalopod availability responds to increased temperatures, using the Sooty Albatross as a bio-sampler. After collecting stomach contents from individuals of this seabird species over three years, the cephalopods consumed were then compared between years. Shamiso found that the dietary composition was significantly different during the warmer year. This is important information because knowing how prey availability responds to temperature changes can improve our understanding of how ecosystems may change in the future due to climate change. Join us for another #ConservationConversation.