{"id":3075,"date":"2025-12-07T13:52:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T18:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/?p=3075"},"modified":"2025-12-07T13:52:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T18:52:26","slug":"wings-through-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/2025\/12\/07\/wings-through-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Wings Through Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
Group Members:<\/strong> Lucas LeBarr, Rifa Mahzabin, Kayla Albin, John Van-Dien<\/div>\n
\n

This research investigates how urban development and habitat restoration at Brooklyn Bridge Park influenced bird diversity between 2016 and 2025. Using iNaturalist observations from the 2016 and 2025 BioBlitz events, we compared bird species richness, abundance, and community composition to understand how construction and ecological restoration shaped the park\u2019s wildlife.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the park was still undergoing major construction, especially near Pier 2 uplands. Noise, heavy machinery, and reduced vegetation made the habitat less suitable for sensitive or migratory species. Most birds observed during this time were urban tolerant generalists such as European Starlings, House Sparrows, and Rock Pigeons.<\/p>\n

By 2025, construction had finished and habitat restoration provided more shelter, food, and safe spaces for birds. As a result, sensitive and migratory species like Black-crowned Night Herons, Northern Cardinals, Northern Mockingbirds, and several warblers returned or increased in number. Urban tolerant species remained common, showing how generalists continue to thrive even as habitats improve.<\/p>\n

Although total bird numbers stayed high across years, the species composition shifted toward a more diverse and balanced community by 2025. This suggests that habitat restoration helped reverse the temporary biodiversity loss associated with construction.<\/p>\n

The project also acknowledges limitations. BioBlitz data are volunteer-based, survey effort varies, weather and migration timing differ by year, and no direct noise or disturbance measurements were available from 2016. Despite these limitations, the trends strongly indicate that construction reduced habitat quality, and restoration supported the recovery of sensitive bird species.<\/p>\n

Future studies could include standardized seasonal surveys, longer term bird monitoring, habitat specific studies (wetlands, meadows, canopy), and assessments of noise, human activity, and nearby urban development to improve understanding of how city parks can best support wildlife.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

View Project<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Group Members: Lucas LeBarr, Rifa Mahzabin, Kayla Albin, John Van-Dien This research investigates how urban development and habitat restoration at Brooklyn Bridge Park influenced bird diversity between 2016…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":3076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1029,54,62,68],"tags":[216,1181,1183,1182,1180],"class_list":["post-3075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1029","category-nair-maya","category-queens","category-seminar-3-science-forward","tag-bioblitz","tag-bird-diversity","tag-brooklyn-bridge-park","tag-habitat-restoration","tag-urban-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3078,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3075\/revisions\/3078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/steam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}