{"id":649,"date":"2023-10-06T10:37:34","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T14:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/?p=649"},"modified":"2025-02-20T10:26:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T15:26:27","slug":"dr-rachel-buxton-isap-professor-researches-bird-songs-may-ease-the-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/2023\/dr-rachel-buxton-isap-professor-researches-bird-songs-may-ease-the-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Rachel Buxton, ISAP Professor researches Bird songs may ease the blues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Dr. Rachel Buxton, ISAP Professor researches Bird songs may ease the blues\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<header>\n<h1 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/greatlakesecho.org\/2023\/10\/06\/bird-songs-may-ease-the-blues\/\">Bird songs may ease the blues<\/a><\/h1>\n<h5 class=\"byline\"><span class=\"by-author\"><span class=\"by\">By<\/span>&nbsp;<span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" title=\"Read All Posts By Daniel Schoenherr\" href=\"http:\/\/greatlakesecho.org\/author\/dschoenherr\/\" rel=\"author\">Daniel Schoenherr<\/a><\/span><\/span><span class=\"sep\">&nbsp;|&nbsp;<\/span><time class=\"entry-date updated dtstamp pubdate\" datetime=\"2023-10-06T02:00:47-04:00\"><span class=\"time-ago\">8 hours ago<\/span><\/time><\/h5>\n<div class=\"largo-follow post-social clearfix\"><span class=\"more-social-links\"><a class=\"popover-toggle\" href=\"http:\/\/greatlakesecho.org\/2023\/10\/06\/bird-songs-may-ease-the-blues\/#\"><i class=\"icon-plus\"><\/i><span class=\"hidden-phone\">MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main \">\n<div class=\"mashsb-box\">\n<div class=\"mashsb-count mash-large\">\n<div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">0<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div id=\"attachment_2871156\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/greatlakesecho.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Robin-771x511.jpg\"><p><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2871156\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The American robin, Michigan\u2019s state bird, could be part of a legion of mental health therapists. It has been logged over 19 million times on the birdwatching app eBird. Image: Michigan Department of Natural Resources<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>By Daniel Schoenherr<\/p>\n<p>The Great Lakes region\u2019s more than 300 bird species may provide valuable mental health benefits.<\/p>\n<p>A recent&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1002\/geo2.127\">study<\/a>&nbsp;from Carleton University in Ontario shows there are fewer mental health-related hospitalizations in Michigan areas with high bird diversity.<\/p>\n<p>Previous&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC4419447\/\">studies<\/a>&nbsp;have linked the presence of foliage to mental health, but the author of this study, Rachel Buxton, said this is not the only element of nature that could impact mental health.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBirds need trees\u2026so we thought maybe it was just green space that is driving this relationship,\u201d said Buxton, who is an assistant professor of biology at Carleton. \u201cAnd that wasn\u2019t the case, which is interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a first (broad) look at the relationship of very severe mental health outcomes\u2026and biodiversity,\u201d Buxton said.<\/p>\n<p>Her study is one of many made possible by a popular bird watching app:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ebird.org\/home\">eBird<\/a>. The app allows users to log an area\u2019s birds, earning badges for recording sightings of different species.<\/p>\n<p>Buxton\u2019s study used eBird\u2019s data to cross-reference the number of bird species in each Michigan zip-code with the number of reported mental health-related hospitalizations in the same year.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/greatlakesecho.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/chart-771x478.png\"><\/figure><p><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2871153\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2871153\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This chart shows bird diversity hotspots across Michigan. Areas on the coast of large bodies of water tend to have the highest number of species. Data from eBird.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Zip codes for coastal regions like Holland and Tawas City tend to have a higher number of species reported, while inland regions like Grand Rapids and Roscommon have smaller numbers.<\/p>\n<p>The relationship between biodiversity and mental health is often reported in textbooks, Buxton said. \u201cIt\u2019s coming up again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The connection is likely linked to sound and human evolution, Buxton said. \u201cHumans are tuned to signals of safety and danger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An environment full of different species indicates that there is food, water and shelter nearby \u2014 things that both people and animals need to survive.<\/p>\n<p>Fewer species in an area could mean that something is wrong. That could mean environmental needs cannot be met or danger is nearby, Buxton said.<\/p>\n<p>Environments where everything has \u201cgone quiet\u201d could indicate danger and induce stress, Buxton said. \u201cThat has very negative downstream health repercussions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHumans rely on sound, it\u2019s the first sense we get as human beings in the womb,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>There is tons of evidence that listening to nature \u2014 even on headphones \u2014 can have health benefits, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Jenna Curtis, eBird project leader at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said thousands of projects across the world use the data.<\/p>\n<p>The app records information, including recent&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ebird.org\/species\/grefla2\">locations<\/a>&nbsp;of flamingoes in Wisconsin. A team of eBird developers review and confirm the data submitted by users, Curtis said.<\/p>\n<p>The app provides data for uses as diverse as high school science projects, training computer programs and fueling new legislation for protecting endangered birds, Curtis said.<\/p>\n<p>Buxton said before eBird, researchers like her had very little data about birds to go off of.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe used to have nothing, no information,\u201d Buxton said. \u201c(eBird) is opening up a world to scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Buxton said she wants to explore the connection between birds and mental health on a smaller scale.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNature is preserving our health,\u201d Buxton said. We need to be looking at it as a reciprocal relationship\u2026. How do we make sure we\u2019re doing our part to preserve nature?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You can find the eBird app at Apple\u2019s App Store and Google Play.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bird songs may ease the blues By&nbsp;Daniel Schoenherr&nbsp;|&nbsp;8 hours ago MORE 0 SHARES The American robin, Michigan\u2019s state bird, could be part of a legion of mental health therapists. It has been logged over 19 million times on the birdwatching app eBird. Image: Michigan Department of Natural Resources By Daniel Schoenherr The Great Lakes region\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/isap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}