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What are Shorebirds?
Importance of Shorebirds
Did you know that shorebirds contribute to a healthy ecosystem? An ecosystem is the collection of all living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) things that are linked and fueled by energy from the sun in a particular geographic area. For example, some of the components of an ecosystem might be land, water, shorebirds, phytoplankton, zooplankton, fish, and guano. The living components of any ecosystem have adapted to live and reproduce in the presence of the other particular components and rely on many of them.
Shorebird droppings, called guano, fertilize the mudflats in which they feed and the water over which they fly. The guano helps microscopic plants, called phytoplankton, grow. Phytoplankton form the base of the food chain upon which the fish we eat depend.
Because shorebirds are dependent upon wetlands, they are good indicators of wetland health. The health of an indicator species tells biologists something about the health of other creatures using or composing that habitat. For instance, if there is a change in population of a shorebird, then perhaps populations of worms on which it feeds are being similarly changed. A change in condition of one shorebird species might lead us to hypothesize that other shorebirds using the same resources will be similarly affected. Perhaps one of the abiotic (nonliving) components of the ecosystem, like the water, is polluted. An indicator species is usually an easily observable organism, and you might find that a change in a shorebird population is the first indication, or hint, that a water source is polluted.
Think of some other indications that studies of shorebirds might give us about a habitat or other species. How many hypotheses can you come up with to finish this sample sentence:
If shorebirds at my local pond (or beach or estuary) are declining in population (or health or number of healthy chicks produced), then perhaps it is because
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