Habitat loss, together with less obvious land-use changes such as intensified farming practice, can have significant adverse impacts on biodiversity. An important factor in determining the ability of species to cope with such changes is their potential to sustain a populations network by dispersal across the landscape. Habitat quality and structure are particularly important for surface-dwelling species with low dispersal abilities, such as amphibians. To assess this ecological function, ponds in a coastal and typically rural area of northern France were surveyed for amphibians in 1974, 1992 and 2011. These repeated surveys yielded different outcomes for different species groups. Three rare species persisted in more or less specialized habitat types. Two moderately common species declined, but kept strongholds in coastal dunes and associated marshes. Five common species with broad ecological niches remained equally widespread. The Northern crested newt declined markedly and the Midwife toad declined dramatically, as did their breeding habitats in vegetated ponds and cattle drinking troughs. One species, the Moor frog, may have gone locally extinct. A model of relative resistance to amphibian dispersal was created for different landscape types, on a scale from 0 (low resistance) to 1 (high resistance). This generated values of 0.23 for pasture, 0.72 for arable and 0.98 for urban and transport. As pasture declined in the study area, while arable and urban/transport infrastructure increased, amphibian dispersal became more difficult. However, dispersal paths proved difficult to evaluate in a patchy landscape like the one surveyed, due to a paucity of spatial 123Biodivers Conserv (2017) 26:1411-1430 DOI 10.1007/s10531-017-1307 signal. Pond loss is a more tractable reason for the observed amphibian species decline than is the quality of intervening terrestrial habitat matrix. In 2011, 22 newly created ponds had species richness in line with pre-existing ponds and this will have counteracted a dwindling metapopulation structure, indicating that habitat creation/restoration can play a valuable role in conservation. The colonization of new ponds may also prove more informative for gauging the potential for amphibian dispersal in the landscape than the preceding decline.

Bioacoustic recording is used to generate occupancy and detectability estimates • Rare heathland breeding birds varied in their occupancy between 0.68 and 0.13 • Detectability varied from 0.74 to 0.20, and was affected by habitat • Bioacoustics can be used to provide improved data over traditional survey methods ABSTRACT Effective monitoring of rare and declining species is critical to enable their conservation, but can often be difficult due to detectability or survey constraints. However, developments in acoustic recorders are enabling an important new approach for improved monitoring that is especially applicable for long-term studies, and for use in difficult environments or with cryptic species. Bioacoustic data may be effectively analysed within an occupancy modelling framework, as presence/absence can be determined, and repeated survey events can be accommodated. Hence, both occupancy and detectability estimates can be produced from large, coherent datasets. However, the most effective methods for the practical detection and identification of call data are still far from established. We assessed a novel combination of automated clustering and manual verification to detect and identify heathland bird vocalizations, covering a period of six days at 44 sampling locations Occupancy (Ψ) and detectability (p) were modelled for each species, and the best fit models provided values of: nightjar Ψ=0.684, p=0.740, Dartford warbler Ψ=0.449 p=0.196 and woodlark Ψ=0.13 p=0.996. Including environmental covariates within the occupancy models indicated that tree, wetland and heather cover were important variables, particularly influencing detectability. The protocol used here allowed robust and consistent survey data to be gathered, with limited fieldwork resourcing, allowing population estimates to be generated for the target bird species. The combination of

Bioacoustics is the study of animal sounds. The importance of bioacoustics for biological research and the survey and monitoring of bird populations is becoming increasingly recognized. This is particularly the case for the capture of long-term data on rare species that are prone to disturbance or are otherwise difficult to survey. The global population of the Western Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus L.; hereafter 'Capercaillie') is declining, and its status in the UK is highly precarious. Current methods for monitoring this species are subject to a number of constraints that affect the quality of collected data. Bioacoustics could provide a useful complement to these existing methods, in particular for the assessment of activity at leks. This study used acoustic recorders to survey Capercaillie vocal activity for a month at ten lek sites, and quantified the numbers of calls produced. Traditional lek count surveys were undertaken at all sites during this time. The recorded vocal activity data (1) correlated with the number of birds recorded by human surveyors, (2) indicated that traditional surveys may be causing some disturbance at the lek sites, and (3) showed that call numbers are related to temporal and environmental variables. The bioacoustic approach can provide high-quality, long-term data, that can be effectively combined with the traditional lek survey technique. It should be utilized more frequently as a survey and monitoring tool to provide structured, coherent results that can be used to aid conservation efforts.

Climate change is expected to cause significant changes to the hydrology of lakes, reservoirs and other wetlands. In particular, there will be an increase in the level of disturbance produced by water-level fluctuations. This may have adverse consequences for biodiversity, water quality and human uses. Strategies to cope with these climate change impacts are currently poorly developed. This article proposes the use of Grime's CSR theory as a framework to understand the potential impacts of climate change on shoreline vegetation. It is also used to recommend a series of practical management techniques that will contribute to the adaptation capacity of shoreline ecosystems. Four key areas are highlighted: hydrological controls, substrate conditions, shoreline topography and vegetation establishment.