Reed management influences philopatry to reed habitats in the Great Reed Warbler (<i>Acrocephalus arundinaceus</i>)

Mérő, Thomas Oliver; Žuljević, Antun; Varga, Katalin; Lengyel, Szabolcs

doi:10.1650/condor-17-114.1

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Water level fluctuates based on the amount of precipitation in the winter and spring seasons and on the ground-water table, which usually decreases throughout the summer and early autumn droughts. During February and March, the locals often burn parts of the reed beds (Mérő et al 2018). Shrubs and/or trees growing near the banks provide potential perches for Cuckoos.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wing-size related habitat choice of Great Reed Warbler females: the role of habitat quality and management

Mérő¹,

Žuljević²,

Varga³

et al. 2020

ACE

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Intersexual differences in habitat choice can arise if males and females differ in morphology, physiology, niche partitioning, or resource use, and can be influenced by variation in habitat structure, quality, and management. To better understand such intersexual differences, we studied habitat choice in female Great Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus), a long-distance migrant flagship species of lowland Palearctic reed (Phragmites australis) habitats. We compared wing length, a widely used proxy for individual quality in passerines, of females nesting in six types of differently managed reed habitats. Our dataset on 391 females nesting in 32 sites over 10 years showed that wing length was significantly greater in mining ponds and medium-sized canals than on large canals. Wing length was negatively related to water level fluctuation and females showed strong philopatry to the habitat type in which they were first captured. In comparison to our previous study on male habitat choice, this study found differences in habitat choice between the sexes. Although long-winged individuals in both sexes preferred habitats with stable water and avoided small canals, longer-winged males preferred large canals with little or no management, whereas long-winged females preferred medium-sized canals with some management. Although these results provide some support for intersexual niche segregation, it is also possible that long-winged females avoid large canals, in which nest parasitism by Cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) is frequent, and/or prefer managed, sparse reed beds with better maneuverability for foraging. Our studies suggest that males may primarily choose habitats with abundant old reed and singing perches, whereas females are less sensitive to environmental variation and may choose nest sites based on male quality or territory quality. For conservation, our studies imply that the maintenance of stable water levels, a low intensity of management and the elimination of Cuckoo perches are likely to benefit both long-winged males and females. Sélection d'habitat lié à la longueur de l'aile chez les Rousserolles turdoïdes femelles : le rôle de la qualité de l'habitat et de l'aménagement RÉSUMÉ. Des différences dans la sélection d'habitat liées au sexe peuvent s'observer si les mâles et les femelles diffèrent en termes de morphologie, de physiologie, de différenciation de niche ou d'utilisation des ressources, et peuvent être influencées par la variation de structure, de qualité et de l'aménagement de l'habitat. Pour mieux comprendre ce type de différences intersexuelles, nous avons étudié la sélection d'habitat chez la femelle Rousserolle turdoïde (Acrocephalus arundinaceus), espèce-phare migratrice de longue distance occupant des milieux paléarctiques de basses terres dominées par le roseau (Phragmites australis). Nous avons comparé la longueur de l'aile, un indicateur très utilisé pour attester de la qualité individuelle des passereaux, de femelles nichant dans six types de milieux de roseaux aménagés de façon différente....

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Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wing-size related habitat choice of Great Reed Warbler females: the role of habitat quality and management

Mérő¹,

Žuljević²,

Varga³

et al. 2020

ACE

Self Cite

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“…These high-quality habitats, despite being quickly occupied by early-arriving, large-winged and presumably higher-quality males, are characterized by higher rates of brood parasitism 49–51 . Therefore, irrigation channels function as ecological traps 50,51 and habitats for sink populations, dependent on the influx of naïve individuals from the habitats with low parasitism rates 52 . These two factors, coupled with the fact that the irrigation channels are artificial habitats created in the past 100 years, prevent natural selection to root out alarm calls, despite the negative fitness consequences suggested by our results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host alarm calls attract the unwanted attention of the brood parasitic common cuckoo

Marton

Fülöp

Ozogány

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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It is well known that avian brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species, called hosts. It remains less clear, however, just how parasites are able to recognize their hosts and identify the exact location of the appropriate nests to lay their eggs in. While previous studies attributed high importance to visual signals in finding the hosts’ nests (e.g. nest building activity or the distance and direct sight of the nest from vantage points used by the brood parasites), the role of host acoustic signals during the nest searching stage has been largely neglected. We present experimental evidence that both female and male common cuckoos Cuculus canorus pay attention to their host’s, the great reed warbler’s Acrocephalus arundinaceus alarm calls, relative to the calls of an unparasitized species used as controls. Parallel to this, we found no difference between the visibility of parasitized and unparasitized nests during drone flights, but great reed warblers that alarmed more frequently experienced higher rates of parasitism. We conclude that alarm calls might be advantageous for the hosts when used against enemies or for alerting conspecifics, but can act in a detrimental manner by providing important nest location cues for eavesdropping brood parasites. Our results suggest that host alarm calls may constitute a suitable trait on which cuckoo nestlings can imprint on to recognize their primary host species later in life. Our study contributes to the growing body of knowledge regarding the context-dependency of animal signals, by providing a novel example of a beneficial acoustic trait intercepted by a heterospecific and used against the emitter.

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“…Additionally, the maintenance of ecotonal features in the reedbed patches has been described as a further aspect to be considered in management. As an example, a very fine-scaled study on Great Reed Warbler in Serbia, found that maintaining different water depth in the reedbed differently affected the survival probability of juveniles, males and females respectively (Méro et al 2018). In the same study site, it has been observed that biggest, putatively dominant, Great Reed Warblers preferentially establish breeding territory in unmanaged (but flooded) portions of the reedbed, while smaller individuals mainly occupy portions of the reedbed in which winter harvesting and burning are practised (Méro et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…portions of mature dense reedbed alternated to spots of early-successional sparse reedbed) is proposed as the best solution to preserve wetlands specialist avifauna by different authors (i.e. Barbraud et al 2002;Beemster et al 2010;Méro et al 2018). To achieve the goals of maintaining a variety of micro-habitat within a reedbed, the management should be oriented to perform different practices (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-species habitat models highlight the key importance of flooded reedbeds for inland wetland birds: implications for management and conservation

et al. 2019

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Background: Inland wetlands are crucial for biodiversity conservation, especially in highly-urbanized landscapes. In the European Union, many wetlands are included in the EU 'Natura 2000' network, the main tool for biodiversity conservation over the continent, which requires the development of site-specific management plans. Clear and feasible recommendations are necessary to provide site managers with effective tools for the maintenance of biodiversity in these unstable environments. Birds are excellent umbrella species, therefore a management targeted at increasing habitat suitability for focal bird species would likely benefit broader wetland biological communities. Methods: During spring-summer 2017, we collected presence/absence data for 10 bird species of conservation interest at a site scale for 21 Natura 2000 sites. We also carried out a point count survey to detect presence/absence of four reedbed-dwelling species at 75 points. At the site level, we estimated landscape characteristics from regional GISlayers, whereas fine-scaled habitat composition was recorded on the field within a 100 m-buffer around the 75 points. We analysed the effect of the extent of different habitats on species' occurrence probability by means of multi-species binomial multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) at both scales. We also run species-specific MARS models to compare their performance with those of multi-species models. Results: At the site scale, the extent of the reedbeds/mires was positively associated with the occurrence of all species of conservation concern. At the point-count scale, reedbed extent positively predicted species' occurrence, but only in presence of patches of clear shallow water. Species-specific MARS models showed qualitatively similar results for some species, but generally were outperformed by multi-species ones. Conclusions: Multi-species MARS models confirmed to be an efficient tool in disclosing species-habitat relationships even for set of species including scarce taxa and when only short-term monitoring data are available. In terms of conservation measures, our findings stress the importance of Phragmites australis reedbed as a key habitat for avian biodiversity, but only when it is flooded and interspersed with scattered patches of open water. The preservation of wide (> 100/150 ha) and flooded reedbeds structured in spots of no less than 2 ha emerges as the main conservation measure for the long-term conservation of the threatened avifauna of inland pre-Alpine wetlands.

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Reed management influences philopatry to reed habitats in the Great Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus)

Cited by 14 publications

References 39 publications

Wing-size related habitat choice of Great Reed Warbler females: the role of habitat quality and management

Wing-size related habitat choice of Great Reed Warbler females: the role of habitat quality and management

Host alarm calls attract the unwanted attention of the brood parasitic common cuckoo

Multi-species habitat models highlight the key importance of flooded reedbeds for inland wetland birds: implications for management and conservation

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