Towards ecologically meaningful and socially acceptable buffers: Response distances of shorebirds in Victoria, Australia, to human disturbance

Glover, Hayley K.; Weston, Michael A.; Maguire, Grainne S.; Miller, Kelly K.; Christie, Belinda

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.08.006

Cited by 123 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…In general, we found that birds were less likely to flush when approached by a slow-moving pedestrian, such as a person actively fishing (i.e., anglers), compared to an active jogger or walker, a result which concurred with past research (Burger 1981, Glover et al 2011. Other studies have shown that, compared to people walking alone, people walking dogs can have a greater impact on bird responses at a beach (Thomas et al 2003) and longer FIDs (Glover et al 2011), but dogs were only observed near the lagoon on 2 occasions during this study. In both cases, it was our subjective assessment that the people accompanying the dogs appeared to be the source of disturbance and not the pets.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Avian use of critical habitats such as these can be impacted by a variety of anthropogenic factors (Glover et al 2011, Madsen 1995, Weston et al 2012a. Birds typically exhibit a flight response when approached by humans.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, understanding which stimuli are present in an environment and at what density they occur is important because birds respond to different anthropogenic stimuli (e.g., walkers, cars, boats) at different rates or distances (Glover et al 2011, McLeod et al 2013). There can also be a strong seasonal component to disturbances (Stillman and Goss-Custard 2002), with Burger (1986) documenting the highest rates of disturbance in May and August, when most migrating shorebirds are present and human use of beaches also tends to peak in the northeastern US.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Responses of Birds to Humans at a Coastal Barrier Beach: Napatree Point, Rhode Island

Mayo

Paton

August

2015

Northeastern Naturalist

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-Human activity is one of the most important factors affecting disturbance to birds that use coastal barrier beaches in southern New England. The barrier beach at Napatree Point, RI, provides important breeding habitat for several bird species, key stopover habitat for thousands of migrating shorebirds, and is also a popular destination for people. Anecdotal evidence suggested that walkers, joggers, dogs, and watercraft were disrupting birds that foraged and roosted at this site. Our objectives were to characterize the frequency and sources of disturbance to birds and use this information to develop management recommendations to minimize the frequency of human disturbances to birds at Napatree Point. We conducted 106 hours of observation from May through August in 2013. Of 211 flight responses, the most common sources of disturbance to birds were beach walkers (57.8%), motorboats (8.5%), kayaks (8.5%), bird watchers (7.6%), and anglers (6.2%). Birds typically flushed when pedestrians (e.g., walkers, bird watchers, and anglers) were within 39 ± 24 m (median ± inter-quartile range) and watercraft (e.g., motorboats and kayaks) were within 38 ± 33 m. Flight responses were positively correlated with the number of people on the beach and the number of boats in the area. Disturbances to birds peaked in July when human visitation was highest. Using a spatially explicit density map of flight-initiation distance vectors, we identified the most important area to set as a buffer zone for human access if managers seek to reduce the frequency of human disturbances to birds at Napatree Point.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Responses of Birds to Humans at a Coastal Barrier Beach: Napatree Point, Rhode Island

Mayo

Paton

August

2015

Northeastern Naturalist

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“…Previous research has identified that there is considerable support for the protection of shorebirds (Glover et al, 2011), even though such support is not reflected in Australian statutory instruments. Migratory shorebirds are highly susceptible to habitat loss through coastal development (Buler and Moore, 2011) and protecting critical habitats used by migratory shorebirds, in the context of increasingly intensive coastal development, is essential (Dhanjal-Adams et al, 2016).…”

Section: Protection Of Marine Migratory Species In Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Protecting Migratory Species in the Australian Marine Environment: A Cross-Jurisdictional Analysis of Policy and Management Plans

et al. 2018

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Marine migratory species are difficult to manage because animal movements can span large areas and are unconstrained by jurisdictional boundaries. We reviewed policy and management plans associated with four case studies protected under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act 1999) in order to identify the coherence of policy and management plans for managing marine migratory species in Australia. Environmental policies (n = 23) and management plans (n = 115) relevant to marine turtles, dugongs, humpback whales, and migratory shorebirds were reviewed. Few of the reviewed policies (n = 7) listed protected species and even fewer (n = 4) listed protected marine migratory species. Marine turtles were most represented in the reviewed policies (n = 7), while migratory shorebirds were most represented in management plans (n = 59). Policies and management plans were much more likely to identify relationships to other policies or plans within the same jurisdiction than to different jurisdictions. The EPBC Act 1999 served as the central link between reviewed policies and plans, but the requirements of that Act were weakly integrated into the other documents. This weak integration and the biases toward specific migratory species in environmental policies and management plans are detrimental to the conservation of these Matters of National Environmental Significance in Australia. Any changes to the EPBC Act 1999 will affect all environmental policy and management plans in Australia and highlights a need for cooperative, multi-level governance of migratory species. Our findings may have relevance to the conservation of marine migratory species in a broader international context.

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“…Shorebirds feed in the intertidal zone and roost during high tide, when large numbers concentrate in to a small area: disturbances at roost sites can therefore impact all roosting individuals simultaneously. Indeed, shorebirds are highly responsive to anthropogenic stimuli and thus are readily disturbed (Glover et al, 2011). Shortterm disturbance includes increased levels of stress and behavioural changes (Landys et al, 2006).…”

Section: Study Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Threats to migratory birds, and actions for their conservation

Dhanjal‐Adams¹

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Migratory species undertake some of the most extreme feats of endurance known in the animal kingdom. Despite many species migrating across continents, oceans and hemispheres, most cannot survive everywhere. Migrants are highly dependent on strategically located breeding and feeding sites for survival and reproduction. Indeed, many species are constrained in time and space by seasonal resource availability, thus forming migratory bottlenecks. Threats operating in such bottlenecks can impact the population as a whole, and can impact survival and reproduction at later migratory stages. In fact, migratory species worldwide are declining at greater rates than non-migratory species. Many migratory species are at risk of extinction if no conservation action is taken.Pinpointing where and when threats occur, and understanding how they impact population dynamics of migratory species is complex. Few tools are available for diagnosing declines, and even fewer for prioritising conservation actions in migratory species. As a result, our understanding of how to conserve migratory species is remarkably poor. In my thesis, I tackle these fundamental gaps in our knowledge by 1) developing and testing a method to distinguish local from remote drivers of population growth rate in migratory species, 2) mapping critical habitat, and 3) prioritising conservation actions at local and international scales. I use the migratory shorebirds of the East-Asian Australasian Flyway as a case study. The East-Asian Australasian Flyway supports 60 species migrating across 23 political jurisdictions, many of which are in significant decline.In Chapter 1, I introduce my thesis by outlining key topics surrounding the conservation of migrants, linking them to my case study. In Chapter 2, I distinguish between local and remote drivers of population growth in migrants, using (i) count data from a single site within a migratory flyway, and (ii) a list of potential stopover sites. Indeed, for migratory species with large distributions, count data, mark-recapture studies or tagging records from across the entire geographic distribution are rare. Monitoring data are typically only available for one or a few sites. Newly available remote sensing data offer an opportunity to investigate how conditions in other parts of migratory cycle affect population growth rate at a monitored site. Analysing count data from Moreton Bay, Australia, I show that it is possible to identify effects of climatic conditions throughout the flyway on the population growth rate of migratory shorebirds as measured at a non-breeding site. My results also show that declines are occurring consistently 3 across all study species, but that there are some clear differences in temperature and rainfall impacts on population growth rate.Information about the distribution and status of habitat is crucial when devising conservation plans for migratory species, yet very little is known about the distribution, extent and protection of the intertidal habitats used by migratory shorebirds. ...

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Towards ecologically meaningful and socially acceptable buffers: Response distances of shorebirds in Victoria, Australia, to human disturbance

Cited by 123 publications

References 53 publications

Responses of Birds to Humans at a Coastal Barrier Beach: Napatree Point, Rhode Island

Responses of Birds to Humans at a Coastal Barrier Beach: Napatree Point, Rhode Island

Protecting Migratory Species in the Australian Marine Environment: A Cross-Jurisdictional Analysis of Policy and Management Plans

Threats to migratory birds, and actions for their conservation

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