The Cape Bird Club

SABAP2 update July 2010.

Professor Les Underhill asks that you read the Latest News

on the SABAP2 website http://sabap2.adu.org.za . This is so important that it is reproduced here, it is the second paragraph that I would like every atlaser to read.

A new paper which helps us understand why SABAP2 is so important.

The paper described here is the fruit of a workshop held immediately prior to the Pan-African Ornithological Congress two years ago. Conferences bring visitors from different places together.
Dr Phoebe Barnard, SANBI, took the opportunity to assemble Brian Huntley, David Hole and Steve Willis from the University of Durham in the UK, Lynda Chambers from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Lesley Gibson from the Department of Environment and Conservation in Western Australia, and a bunch of locals. We talked about new ways to model how the distributions of species might evolve and respond to climate change. Such models are useful, because they can help us develop conservation strategies that will enhance species' opportunities to adapt to climate change. A new generation of robust predictive models is needed which will improve our understanding of how species and communities might steadily respond to climatic change, or might not be able to respond. These models need to take account of the dispersive abilities of the species that form the community.

This is one of the groups of scientists for whom SABAP2 is extremely important. This is because the most crucial ingredient for their models is the best possible information on current distributions of species. Our efforts as atlasers are recognised and valued by this community: "The data requirements of such models emphasise the vital contribution made by amateurs and the general public. It is often they who have provided most of the species' distribution and abundance data over extensive regions." Ultimately, the results of this modelling feed into policy decisions, and help the conservation management of the species.

The paper produced as a result of the workshop was published today in the journal Ecography: Huntley B, Barnard P, Altwegg R, Chambers L, Coetzee BWT, Gibson L, Hockey PAR, Hole DG, Midgley GF, Underhill LG, Willis SG 2010.
Beyond bioclimatic envelopes: Dynamic species' range and abundance modelling in the context of climatic change. Ecography 33: 621- 626. 

You can get the pdf of the paper from me, Les.