The purpose of this study was to educate the public about the negative effects of feeding birds. It is common for people to see birds and want to feed them, although, they do not realize the detrimental effects it has on the birds. Birds are scavengers and if people start feeding them, they become reliant on humans instead of their instincts. This can lead to severe injury and death. 

This study was conducted in Massachusetts over a two year time span, from 2011 to 2013. The focus of this study was to monitor people who feed seagulls and gather data. There were eight parking lots surveyed and divided into two categories, educational lots and no educational lots. Educational lots informed people of the dangers of feeding birds and asked them to stop feeding them while non educational lots did not put signs out, nor did they ask the public to stop feeding the birds. Researchers spent about 1200 hours total in these parking lots during the study. 

The target species of seagulls was ring- billed gulls or Lorus delawarensis. These seagulls are one of the most common and account for 98 percent of the seagull population. The results showed there were less humans feeding bids in educational lots by about .01 in one monitoring session. The results also showed, that in two monitoring sessions, the amount of seagulls frequenting the educational lot had increased by about .08. This led to the non educational lots being transformed into educational lots. Even after this change, there was no significant difference in the amount of birds seen. There was a decent decrease in the feedings by about .055.

This study showed that humans feeding birds is one of the most common wildlife interactions, about 95% of people feed birds. Unfortunately, because it has been going on for so long, feeding wild birds is not going to stop. The only way to create a safer environment is to educate humans on the effects. This study did a good job of bringing awareness and educating the public about the dangers of feeding wild birds. 

Clark, D. E., Whitney, J. J., MacKenzie, K. G., Koenen, K. K. G., & DeStefano, S. (2015). Assessing gull abundance and food availability in urban parking lots. Human – Wildlife Interactions, 9(2), 180-190. https://proxying.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/assessing-gull-abundance-food-availability-urban/docview/1733928388/se-2

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Insects, being one of the most diversified and important ecological groups on the planet, are at risk of declining populations due to climate change. This paper focused on how using data from long-term monitoring of insect populations could give insight and answer more recent questions regarding population dynamics and climate change. The authors pooled together various studies that had at least a 10 year continuous sampling time frame, looked at 10 or more species, was restricted to a “protected area/ gradient of land use,” and analyzed climate change as a possible causative factor.

A case study highlighting butterflies residing in an “undisturbed” mountainous portion of northern California was used to explore any relationship between geographical differences and climate change. It was found that montane insects had easy access to a range of elevation gradients and therefore could adapt to changing climate by moving to more optimal thermal environments in order to efficiently thermoregulate. Since insects are poikilotherms, they must rely on the environment to regulate their body temperature, unlike those that have an internal temperature regulation. Having microclimates closer in proximity to one another without fragmentation by human development meant the insects could easily disperse amongst the patches of optimal habitat in order to fulfill their thermal needs.

An aspect of this analysis that differentiates it from papers that simply want to confirm whether or not climate change is directly influencing insect population dynamics is comparing climate change to other stressors like land use. From a management perspective, this would allow resources and time to be effectively allocated to mitigate whichever stressor is likely to have the greatest impact. Although this is a logical way of attempting to maximize the potential to conserve a population and its ecological niche, the stressors are not always so clear-cut and many times are entwined or even interdependent on one another. Stressors that might have been initiated by climate change have been shaped or accelerated by anthropogenic influence.

The selection of studies chosen to be analyzed through the aforementioned criteria also include an inherent geographical and taxa bias, since the majority of long-term continuous insect observations have been based in northern Europe and looked at the order Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). The gap in long-term studies has hindered understanding of climate change over a diverse range of biomes, especially those found in tropical areas where there is an insect biodiversity hotspot. Conclusions being drawn from collective studies mostly pertaining to Lepidopterans cannot be applied to the full class of Insecta, as the dispersal rate to new microclimates for butterflies is a feat that may not be as easily accomplished by Coleopterans (beetles) for example.

This article is important because insects can be keystone species or even ecosystem engineers and without them a vital portion of the food web would be missing. In order to effectively mitigate stressors for insect populations, there must be more inclusive long-term studies that give insight on a more diverse spectrum of insect orders and geographical range. Additionally, this spreads awareness to the importance of a continuous landscape with a gradient of microclimates for insects to disperse to suitable thermal environments in response to climate change.

This study was conducted to analyze the effects of black bear populations in urban areas. The intention was to gain data from all of North America; however, this study mostly focused on two communities in Colorado as that was a convenient location for researchers. The way of gaining data for this study was through a survey sent via mail and published on the internet. Researchers were then permitted to visit the homes of respondents in June of 2007. They discovered there is a rising problem with black bear encounters in the United States and one hope for this study was to find a way humans and bears can live together in harmony. Black bears are large animals, and can easily scare humans, even without trying to. The main goal of this study was to educate people about black bears and their desire to get food, not harm humans. 

A study carried out in the United States, Mexico, and Canada has shown that about 82% of respondents believe confrontation or conflicts with black bears is becoming a more common occurrence. A study done by the same researchers shows that 62% of respondents believe the conflicts come from bears having increased access to trash or other food. Essentially, this study revealed that humans were responsible for increased bear encounters by leaving trash and other bear attracting food out. The respondents were not simply from neighborhoods as urban areas also include apartments, buildings, offices, and private homes. 

There were very few challenges in getting people to participate in the study. Researchers visited residence in order to ask for participation, of the places visited, 24% of people or 553 people were talked to. As mentioned, the primary ways of sending the survey were via mail or through internet responses. Of the 24% connected with, 84% wanted an internet version and 7% wanted it mailed to them. Additionally, 3% requested a Spanish copy of the mailed version while 6% refused to participate. There were very few people who were contacted that chose not to participate in the study.

This study allowed for researchers to come up with ways to avoid human conflicts with bears in the area. Included below is a table of best practices to avoid these conflicts and the degrees at which they are effective. According to respondents, the best thing to do that results in a positive outcomes is to observe the bear from afar and watch for dangerous behaviors.

Don Carlos, Andrew W. Bright, Alan. Teel, Tara L. Vaske, Jerry J. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10871200902839316#d1e307. Accessed 13 Sep. 2024.