The Ecology of Bird Loss Project

The Ecology of Bird Loss (EBL) project investigates the importance of birds in forested and agricultural systems and the consequences of bird loss. Our field work takes place on a chain of islands in the Pacific called the Mariana Islands. The Brown Treesnake was introduced to Guam, the southernmost Mariana Island, in the 1940’s. The snake has since caused the functional extirpation of all native forest bird species on the island, resulting in the only contemporary case of whole-island forest bird loss in the world. Using parallel experiments and comparisons on Guam and three nearby islands with intact bird communities, we are investigating two of the primary ecosystem functions birds provide - seed dispersal and top down control of food webs. This work will provide the first landscape-level assessment of the impacts of bird loss on an entire forest community, and it will provide critical economic and ecological indicators of the long term costs of Brown Treesnake invasion.