Why Birds Matter: Conserving the World’s Birds and Their Ecosystem Services

12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m., S.J. Quinney College of Law Moot Courtroom (Level 6)

Studying birds’ ecological functions and ecosystem services enables us to understand the environmental consequences, of bird declines and extinctions, for ecosystems and for the people that benefit from birds’ services. We need to do more to communicate these findings to the public and policy makers, thereby increasing public support for the conservation of birds, their habitats, and birds’ ecosystem services.

Çağan Hakkı Şekercioğlu is a biology professor at University of Utah where he directs the Biodiversity and Conservation Ecology Lab. He studies the conservation ecology of keystone vertebrates and their ecological functions in the Anthropocene, the current epoch dominated by human-driven global change.