Bird populations in arable landscapes could be damaged by certain types of genetically-modified crops, according to Professor Ken Norris, Director, Centre for Agri-Environmental Research, University of Reading , who is giving a seminar on the topic at The Macaulay Institute this Wednesday, 2 March.

“Using experimental data on GM crops from the farm-scale evaluations, we found that in the short-term the impact on birds may be negligible for certain crop types but more severe for others. In the longer-term, bird populations could be damaged by farmers using GM crops in current rotations if a specific set of ecological conditions occurred,” commented Professor Norris.

“Research of this nature helps us to understand how these changes affect key resources such as food, breeding sites, predators etc. so that we can predict how animal populations might respond to future ‘novel’ environmental changes driven by land-use or climate, and think of ways of minimizing potential problems.

“In the seminar I will also be looking at how long-term changes in rainfall patterns could drive the tropical bird, the Mauritius kestrel, into extinction, although this species has been shown to have an important ecological protection mechanism – as numbers decline the remaining birds survive better and breed more successfully, mitigating the adverse effects of climate change.”

Anyone interested in attending this Wednesday’s Macaulay seminar should contact Jane Lund on tel: 01224 498200, email:j.lund@macaulay.ac.uk.

The Macaulay Institute is the premier land use research institute in the UK. Two hundred and seventy staff are based at the Macaulay Institute at Craigiebuckler in Aberdeen. The Macaulay Institute aims to be an international leader in research on the use of rural land resources for the benefit of people and the environment and is involved in research across the globe; from Scotland to Chile and China. More about the Macaulay Institute can be found at www.macaulay.ac.uk .

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Professor Ken Norris

Professor Norris is a Research Professor in Agroecology and Director of the Centre for Agri-Environmental Research (CAER) at the University of Reading .

The centre undertakes a range of ecological research related to understanding and managing environments affected by agriculture. It works on study systems all over the world, as well as on UK/EU farming systems. Professor Norris’ own area of expertise is in avian ecology and conservation, and his team is currently running a range of projects in the UK and overseas (mainly on tropical endemic species – species with a very small geographical range).

Professor Norris joined Reading University as a lecturer in 1997 in the School of Animal & Microbial Sciences. Prior to this he worked for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) for four years as a Research Biologist studying mainly coastal bird conservation in the UK and some overseas studies. He did his first degree at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, from which he graduated with a BSc in Environmental Biology in 1985. He then went on to do a Doctor of Philosophy degree and post-doc in field ornithology at the Edward Grey Institue in Oxford , which he left in 1993 to take up a post at RSPB.