BEARDED VULTURE RESEARCH (What we have in mind)
Research Questions: How does lead affect population density, and what can be done to increase vulture population numbers or mitigate lead effects?
A. According to Krüger and Amar, there are three main life stages for Gypaetus barbatus, including juveniles, subadults, and adults. Juveniles are fledglings less than two years of age and make up 37% of the population. Subadults range from two to five years old and make up 3.5% of the population. Adults are individuals older than five years and make up 60% of the population. Juveniles have a survival rate of 57%, subadults have a survival rate of 61%, and adults have a survival rate of 84%. For this South African population, adult bearded vultures have reproductive rates that range from 0.42 to 0.65. The initial abundances were estimated by comparing the percentages from each class making up the population to the current population size. The current size is made up of 390 individuals found in the Maloti Mountains in Lesotho. The initial abundance of juveniles is 144, subadults 12, and adults 234.
Lead poisoning is a catastrophe that is detrimental to bearded vulture populations. Bearded vultures as a whole species have declined more than 30% in recent decades. Although relatively unstudied, lead poisoning is thought to add to this population decline (Krüger). It is unknown what the largest density able to be supported is. However, due to scarce food availability, the maximum density cannot be high (van den Heever et al.). Competition for resources alongside lead poisoning would likely cause this population to have a negative density dependence, but more information is needed to fully test this.
B. We plan to test how lead poisoning affects the overall bearded vulture population density by identifying to what degree vulture populations will decline with high lead consumption. We must demonstrate and test how lead mitigation efforts affect the population. Is lead mitigation possible through carcass and/or ammunition management? How can we show this in our model?
C. Literature Cited
Krüger, S. C., and A. Amar. 2022. The Ecology and Management of a Critically Endangered Population of Bearded Vultures. Pages 313–323 in D. A. DellaSala and M. I. Goldstein, editors. Imperiled: The Encyclopedia of Conservation. Elsevier, Oxford.
Krüger, Sonja C. “Lead Exposure in the Critically Endangered Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus Barbatus) Population in Southern Africa.” Journal of Raptor Research, vol. 52, no. 4, Dec. 2018, pp. 491–99. bioone.org, https://doi.org/10.3356/JRR-17-86.1.
Van den Heever, Linda, et al. “Blood and Bone Lead Levels in South Africa’s Gyps Vultures: Risk to Nest-Bound Chicks and Comparison with Other Avian Taxa.” Science of The Total Environment, vol. 669, June 2019, pp. 471–80. ScienceDirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.123.
PS: 2 MORE academic sources are needed.
What I need is an Introduction and Discussion Part.
For the Introduction:
This is where you introduce the topic and describe why it’s important. You should also include your research questions here, along with any hypotheses that you are testing (this is usually the last paragraph of your introduction).The first paragraph(s) of the introduction should provide a clear motivation for your research questions. By the time the reader comes to your research questions (at the end of your introduction) it should make sense why you are asking these questions!
The last paragraph of your introduction should state your testable research question(s) along with any hypothesis you have (educated guesses about your anticipated results).
For the discussion:
Just find something that might explain why it is difficult to find a good acccurate data or something that might show why the research can still be flawed even if there are numbers provided on how to mitigate the lead effects. An also some questions along the way about this topic. (does not have to be long, maybe a paragraph? More into parapharases from sources of at least 5 for this part. No explanations needed, even if al were from sources is fine.)
