Climate change, forest degradation and the future of Himalayan biodiversity | Dr Umesh Srinivasan
Channel: Canopy Collective
Date: 2024-03-05

As part of the Canopy Collective (formerly, seed lab) talk series blah blah blah, Dr. Umesh Srinivasan, assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Science, will talk to us about climate change, forest degradation and how birds are responding to these, and what we can do to conserve them. A short summary in his own words:

Earth is currently undergoing its sixth-ever mass extinction, driven primarily by anthropogenic climate change and habitat loss. The biodiversity of the Himalayas is at special risk because of a rate of warming thrice as fast as the global average coupled with rapid forest loss. To conserve the exceptional biodiversity of the Himalayas therefore requires an understanding of how species’ traits (e.g., physiology, behaviour) influence their responses to climate warming and forest loss and degradation (e.g., agriculture, logging). I use a combination of comparative data from the western and eastern Himalayas and long-term demographic data from an intensive study site in the eastern Himalayas to investigate three key research themes: (a) the role of temperature in structuring bird communities (and how species’ thermal niches influence their ability to cope with forest loss), (b) the impacts of selective logging on the survivorship of Himalayan birds, and (c) how synergies between climate change and forest degradation affect the viability of Himalayan bird populations. I will discuss results from these research projects as well as the implications of these results for conservation.

2nd June 2023