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THE ALLEE EFFECT, popularized in the memorable book, The Moth Snowstorm by Michael McCarthy describes how social bird colonies like sparrows will collapse when the population falls below a certain threshold, and has contributed to the drastic loss of sparrow populations. https://lnkd.in/dp2SYmj View in LinkedIn

Jurors give $289 million to a man they say got cancer from Monsanto's Roundup https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/10/health/monsanto-johnson-trial-verdict/index.html View in LinkedIn

IMPACT OF COLONY COLLAPSE. “It has been observed widely that the local abundance and regional distribution of species tend to be correlated positively, such that species with low abundance within sites (i.e. average numbers or densities of individuals) also tend to occupy few sites (i.e. the area or range of a species at a national or continental scale), while species with high abundance also tend to occupy a large number of sites.” https://lnkd.in/dZAJ-iq View in LinkedIn

SURVIVAL ISSUES. “Studies have suggested that a major impact has been a reduction in the survival rate, specifically of first-year birds, rather than a decrease in productivity.” https://www.britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V96/V96_N09/V96_N09_P439_446_A004.pdf View in LinkedIn

INDIAN SPARROW COLLAPSE. “In recent years India also has seen a dramatic decline of sparrow populations. In recent years, ornithologists have observed sharp decline in house sparrow populations across Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and other cities in India.” https://lnkd.in/e6evZ-H View in LinkedIn

RURAL CHANGES IMPACT. “These changes have reduced food availability, both of seeds, which sustain birds throughout the year, and of invertebrates, which are required by House Sparrows for rearing young.” https://www.britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V96/V96_N09/V96_N09_P439_446_A004.pdf View in LinkedIn

UNFINISHED TREND. “Today, the number of house sparrows in North America is only some 25 million, and the trend continues downward.” https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-55396-2_5 View in LinkedIn

US SPARROW COLLAPSE. “After its introduction in the 1850s, the house sparrow quickly spread across North America, and 40 years later, it had colonized large parts of the continent. At its peak, the number could have touched half a billion. After that, the house sparrow population shrank in stages with periodic rapid decreases. In between, the numbers stabilized, before the decline continued. Lately, subpopulations, especially in the big cities, have all but collapsed.” https://lnkd.in/dGi32hq View in LinkedIn

EUROPEAN SPARROW COLLAPSE. “Dutch house sparrow (Passer domesticus) densities dropped by nearly 50% since the early 1980s, and similar collapses in population sizes have been reported across Europe.” https://lnkd.in/dyehfe7 View in LinkedIn

SPARROW MICROBIOTA. “We found urbanisation to be associated to lower microbiota species diversity, modifications in taxonomic composition and community structure, and changes in functional composition. Our results hence shed light on a hitherto little considered perspective, i.e. that the negative effects of urbanisation on city-dwelling organisms may extend to their microbiomes, causing potential dysbioses.” https://lnkd.in/dyfjm-b View in LinkedIn