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We predicted the RIO of black-billed gulls based on machine learning ensembles. Training data is plotted at the top (pink dots = present, green dots = absent). credit: ecological informatics (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2023.102364
recent research published in ecological informatics A team of researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks used artificial intelligence to further understand the habitat turnover of black-billed gulls.
Seagulls usually live along coastlines and near water sources such as rivers. They eat insects and other small mammals, fish and birds.
The researchers found that from May to August, long-billed gulls occupied areas normally infested with scavenging crows. These include supermarket and fast food restaurant parking lots, and other man-made structures such as industrial gravel pads and dumpsters.
This study used opportunistic citizen science-based research methods to compile a three-year dataset of large samples of gulls and other subarctic birds in urban Alaska. This is my first research. This study provides a current snapshot of habitat changes to urban landscapes.
The paper’s lead author, UAF professor Falk Hiettman, and his team used artificial intelligence modeling given predictor variables (environmental variables at a particular location) to estimate information about gull occurrence. . A similar, previous study We analyzed the distribution of the American gray owl.
In the study, researchers used U.S. Census data and urban municipal data such as distance to roads, restaurants, waterways, and waste transfer stations.
“The use of socioeconomic datasets like the U.S. Census is truly transformative,” said Moritz Steiner, a graduate student in Huettman’s lab. “By reflecting real-world environments and including them as variables in the model, we can simulate situations as true to nature as possible.”
The results of this study show that the migration of gulls from natural habitats to more urban landscapes is driven not only by industrial change but also by the availability of human food.
“They are taking advantage of the waste left behind by humans,” said Huettman, an official with the UAF Arctic Biological Laboratory.
The black-billed gull, known as the meow gull until 2021, is omnivorous and highly adaptable. Gulls can find more food in garbage dumps and gravel pits, but that food often has a negative impact on their longevity and can even lead to death. Easily available food obtained through avian “dumpster diving”, especially in fast food restaurants, can be deadly to birds due to the large amounts of salt, fat, sugar, grease, and contaminants.
Seagulls are also good indicators of ecological disease.
The researchers found that disease hosts increased in areas where gulls congregated in summer, sometimes up to 200 birds at each location. Seagulls can spread infectious diseases such as avian influenza and salmonella, which can be transmitted to humans.According to an unrelated person studyThe first recorded salmonella outbreak associated with seagulls occurred in 1959 and was recorded in Ketchikan, North America.
“Seagulls are known to be major vectors of disease. Seagulls suffer overwhelmingly from avian influenza. What we’re showing on the map is that essentially it just happens to coincide with the development of humans. It’s a reservoir of disease,” said Huettman, who also holds a UAF University appointment. natural science and mathematics.
For Huettman, these studies are just further evidence that what we call “wildlife” is changing.
“This type of information provides a more complete picture of how human impacts on the environment are changing what we perceive as natural. The use of machine learning will hopefully help advocate for improved wildlife conservation,” Huettman said.
For more information:
Falk Huettmann et al., Model-based prediction of empty summer niches in subarctic urban landscapes: multi-year open access data analysis of ‘niche exchange’ by shoe-billed gulls, ecological informatics (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2023.102364
