Birds protected by national legislation show improved population trends in Eastern Europe

Koleček, Jaroslav; Schleuning, Matthias; Burfield, Ian J.; Báldi, András; Böhning‐Gaese, Katrin; Devictor, Vincent; Fernández-García, José María; Hořák, David; Turnhout, C.A.M. van; Hnatyna, Oksana; Reif, Jiří

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2014.02.029

Cited by 38 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…As a surrogate for life-history strategy, we used species' body mass (in grams) assuming that larger bodied species invest more energy to survival and have thus 'slower strategies' being under the so-called 'K-selection', whilst smaller species invest more energy to actual reproduction and have thus 'faster' strategies being under 'r-selection' (Saether et al 2005). This gradient was confirmed as the most important life history axis in recent analyses focusing on variability in life history traits across large sets of species (Sol et al 2012, Koleček et al 2014b. According to diet, we classified species into four categories defined by prevailing food: carnivores (n = 34 species), insectivores (n = 63 species), herbivores (n = 77 species) and omnivores (n = 18 species).…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 65%

“…Given the lower importance of the effect of birds' habitat use, suggesting that species under higher extinction risk are not confined to some specific habitats, we suggest that overall improvement of environmental conditions and legislation in countries located in the tropical zone may be a route to improvement. Lessons from some developing temperate regions, such as Eastern Europe (Koleček et al 2014b), imply that such a solution is achievable. (5) …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Global analysis of threat status reveals higher extinction risk in tropical than in temperate bird sister species

Reif¹,

Štěpánková²

2016

European Journal of Ecology

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Global analysis of threat status reveals higher extinction risk in tropical than in temperate bird sister species EJE 2016EJE , 2(1): 21-34, doi: 10.1515EJE /eje-2016 Jiří Reif 1,2* , Klára Štěpánková 1 Given increasing pressures upon biodiversity, identification of species' traits related to elevated extinction risk is useful for more efficient allocation of limited resources for nature conservation. Despite its need, such a global analysis was lacking in the case of birds. Therefore, we performed this exercise for avian sister species using information about their global extinction risk from IUCN Red List. We focused on 113 pairs of sister species, each containing a threatened and an unthreatened species to factor out the effects of common evolutionary history on the revealed relationship. We collected data on five traits with expected relationships to species' extinction risk based on previous studies performed at regional or national levels: breeding habitat (recognizing forest, grassland, wetland and oceanic species), latitudinal range position (temperate and tropics species), migration strategy (migratory and resident species), diet (carnivorous, insectivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous species) and body mass. We related the extinction risk using IUCN threat level categories to species' traits using generalised linear mixed effects models expecting lower risk for forest, temperate, omnivorous and smaller-bodied species. Our expectation was confirmed only in the case of latitudinal range position, as we revealed higher threat level for tropical than for temperate species. This relationship was robust to different methods of threat level expression and cannot be explained by a simple association of high bird species richness with the tropical zone. Instead, it seems that tropical species are more threatened because of their intrinsic characteristics such as slow life histories, adaptations to stable environments and small geographic ranges. These characteristics are obviously disadvantageous in conditions of current human-induced environmental perturbations. Moreover, given the absence of habitat effects, our study indicates that such perturbations act across different tropical environments. Therefore, disproportionally higher conservation effort in the tropics compared to the temperate zone is urgently needed. INTRODUCTION ABSTRACTBiodiversity, bird, threat, species' traits, sister species, tropics KEYWORDS

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Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global analysis of threat status reveals higher extinction risk in tropical than in temperate bird sister species

Reif¹,

Štěpánková²

2016

European Journal of Ecology

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“…In an effort to address the continued decline of farmland biodiversity, agri-environment schemes (AES) were established by European Member States in the early 1990s in response to EU Agri-environmental Regulation (90/20788/EEC), [17,24]. Typically, AES consist of vertical ("narrow and deep") policies, investing a high amount of resources into a limited number of species or habitats within a limited number of geographical areas; or horizontal ("broad and shallow") policies, with a modest effort at each location that is more widely applied [24,25], or a combination of both. AES are now considered the most important policy instrument to halting the decline of farmland biodiversity in the EU [24,[26][27][28].…”

Section: Halting the Decline Of Farmland Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although horizontal measures can result in some benefits for certain species [31], these measures typically lack the appropriate targeting or design required to adequately enhance the conservation status of threatened specialist farmland bird species. Kolecek et al [25] concluded that population trends of protected bird species remained practically unchanged in countries providing horizontal measures. Reid et al [32] stated that such measures, when mammal species were examined, bring greatest benefits to generalist species that are already common in agro-ecosystems.…”

Section: Halting the Decline Of Farmland Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specialist species, including farmland bird specialists, require the adoption of vertical measures (e.g., specific and targeted) to help reverse declines in their population and range. The examples that are most effective involve the design, targeting and establishment of bespoke conservation measures tailored to the requirements of individual species [25,26].…”

Section: Halting the Decline Of Farmland Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Opportunities within the Revised EU Common Agricultural Policy to Address the Decline of Farmland Birds: An Irish Perspective

hUallacháin

Copland²,

Buckley

et al. 2015

Diversity

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Abstract:The loss of global biological diversity continues despite on-going conservation efforts. Agriculture is the major terrestrial land use in Europe and any conservation efforts to protect biological diversity must address sustainable use of these food production systems. Using Ireland, within the European Union policy framework, as an example, the declines in farmland birds are discussed. The opportunities afforded to farmland bird conservation as a result of the recent reform to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are outlined. The potential for revised and refined CAP, specifically agri-environment schemes, to deliver benefits for biodiversity and for farmland bird species within Irish agricultural ecosystems is explored. Despite all the efforts to date and the significant resources invested in implementing agri-environment measures and schemes, few attempts have been made to collect monitoring and surveillance data with which to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of schemes, and measures that are designed to assist in the recovery of farmland biodiversity, including bird species, in Ireland.

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Do large-seeded herbs have a small range size? The seed mass-distribution range trade-off hypothesis

Sonkoly

Deák²,

Valkó³

et al. 2017

Ecol Evol

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We aimed to introduce and test the “seed mass–distribution range trade‐off” hypothesis, that is, that range size is negatively related to seed mass due to the generally better dispersal ability of smaller seeds. Studying the effects of environmental factors on the seed mass and range size of species, we also aimed to identify habitats where species may be at risk and need extra conservation effort to avoid local extinctions. We collected data for seed mass, global range size, and indicators for environmental factors of the habitat for 1,600 species of the Pannonian Ecoregion (Central Europe) from the literature. We tested the relationship between species’ seed mass, range size, and indicator values for soil moisture, light intensity, and nutrient supply. We found that seed mass is negatively correlated with range size; thus, a seed mass–distribution range trade‐off was validated based on the studied large species pool. We found increasing seed mass with decreasing light intensity and increasing nutrient availability, but decreasing seed mass with increasing soil moisture. Range size increased with increasing soil moisture and nutrient supply, but decreased with increasing light intensity. Our results supported the hypothesis that there is a trade‐off between seed mass and distribution range. We found that species of habitats characterized by low soil moisture and nutrient values but high light intensity values have small range size. This emphasizes that species of dry, infertile habitats, such as dry grasslands, could be more vulnerable to habitat fragmentation or degradation than species of wet and fertile habitats. The remarkably high number of species and the use of global distribution range in our study support our understanding of global biogeographic processes and patterns that are essential in defining conservation priorities.

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Birds protected by national legislation show improved population trends in Eastern Europe

Cited by 38 publications

References 46 publications

Global analysis of threat status reveals higher extinction risk in tropical than in temperate bird sister species

Global analysis of threat status reveals higher extinction risk in tropical than in temperate bird sister species

Opportunities within the Revised EU Common Agricultural Policy to Address the Decline of Farmland Birds: An Irish Perspective

Do large-seeded herbs have a small range size? The seed mass-distribution range trade-off hypothesis

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