WTUL News and Views Interviews Jessica Renee Henkel about BP's oil impacts to shorebirds, and how it might impact ecosystems as far away as the Arctic.
Henkel's preliminary results show that 8.6% of shorebirds across the Gulf Coast showed visible signs of oil. Given the 1 million shorebirds that fly through the Gulf region, she estimated at least 86,000 shorebirds visibly oiled, which has implications for other ecosystems, all the way to the arctic, whence these birds travel.
On the table is how Jessica finds and captures the birds, the different ways that the oil makes birds sick, and might impact their reproduction, and a call to other researchers to recognize and document how the BP oil disaster may impact their ecosystem and study area.
