Quantifying the shifted baseline in breeding bird communities for Native American tribes relocated to Oklahoma
Stevens, Madison Mackenzie ; O'Connell, Timothy
Citations
Abstract
Ecosystem services are often recognized for their importance in productivity (e.g., Nitrogen fixation) or biosphere support (Oxygen production from photosynthesis). Cultural ecosystem services (e.g., biodiversity appreciation) are no less important to human well-being but are undervalued when incremental losses go unrecognized by subsequent generations. This phenomenon referred to as generational amnesia or more commonly a shifted baseline of biodiversity understanding. The baseline serves as a control for what is considered normal in that ecosystem and what changes are measured against. Shifted baselines are especially damaging in cultures for which a connection to Nature is emphasized as a point of identity. In the United States, the forced relocation of Native Americans to Oklahoma Territory in the 19th and 20th centuries represents an extreme shifted baseline that severed important biodiversity connections in a single generation. The main purpose of this study was to quantify shifted baselines of breeding bird biodiversity for multiple Native American tribes now based in Oklahoma. The data used for this project was collected through eBird, a volunteer-based citizen science database, from fifteen different tribes who currently have jurisdictions in Oklahoma. Additionally, data from geographic regions where these tribes are originally from prior to their relocation to Oklahoma was also collected. We used beta diversity to quantify estimates of bird community difference and loss between ancestral and Oklahoma lands. Results showed eleven of the fifteen tribes experienced a community dissimilarity over 50% between their ancestral lands and Oklahoma areas. This means these tribes experienced a change in over half of the bird communities, ancestral baseline species, they encountered upon relocation to Oklahoma. This not only shows a significant shift in bird communities experienced by the tribes, but could also provide insight to other drastic shifting baselines these tribes had to endure upon their forced removal from their ancestral lands.