Within‐year and among‐year variation in impacts of targeted conservation management on juvenile survival in a threatened population

Abstract

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Integrating advances in population and evolutionary ecology with conservation strategy through long‐term studies of red‐billed choughs

“…Cook et al, 2013;Toomey et al, 2016;Williams et al, 2020). To fulfil academic objectives, primary scientific papers were strategically published in British Ecological Society journals, targeted at general concept-led international audiences spanning pure and applied ecology (Journal of Animal Ecology: Reid et al, 2003aReid et al, † , 2003bReid et al, ‡ , 2004Reid et al, , 2006Reid et al, , 2008Reid et al, , 2010Trask et al, 2016Trask et al, † , 2017Journal of Applied Ecology: Reid et al, 2011;Trask et al, 2019;Fenn et al, 2020Fenn et al, , 2021; total >685 citations, Google Scholar October 2021, Elton prize ‡ winner, † highly commended). Yet, while these papers retained some system-specific context, the focus on general conceptual rather than system-specific impact (as required for these BES journals) meant that the full process of pure-applied integration and its application to chough conservation was not previously visible.…”

“…Consequently, we used individual-based models incorporating inbreeding depression alongside environmental and demographic stochasticity to examine the degrees to which ecological management to improve habitat and increase food abundance, and/or genetic management to reduce inbreeding, could increase λ and ultimately population size (Trask et al, 2019). Models were parameterised using spatially structured estimates of baseline vital rates from the long-term demographic monitoring (Reid et al, 2004(Reid et al, , 2006, and used the estimated effects of supplementary feeding as a proxy for how much vital rates could potentially be increased through habitat management (Fenn et al, 2020(Fenn et al, , 2021Trask et al, 2020). The population-wide degree of inbreeding was estimated from microsatellite variation.…”

“…During 2001-2021, we completed one major iteration of the desired sequence of (a) rigorous scientific investigation of population ecology, demography and genetics (Reid et al, 2003a(Reid et al, , 2003b(Reid et al, , 2004(Reid et al, , 2006Trask et al, 2016Trask et al, , 2017 with targeted follow-up investigation of ecological and genetic constraints (Reid et al, 2008(Reid et al, , 2009(Reid et al, , 2011Trask et al, 2017;Wenzel et al, 2011Wenzel et al, , 2012, (b) resulting evidencebased intervention Trask et al, 2020) and (c) rigorous quantitative evaluation of efficacy (Fenn et al, 2020(Fenn et al, , 2021Trask et al, 2019). This work is now informing full costing and prioritisation of future chough conservation strategy in Scotland, including decisions on increases or cessation of investment in conservation actions, encompassing future agri-environment schemes and translocations (Trask et al, 2020;Appendix S1).…”

“…Specifically, the underlying science utilised advanced matrix population model analyses, including prospective analyses of integrated elasticities, retrospective analyses of vital rate variation, approximations of stochastic growth rates and use of stage-specific reproductive values and demographic variances to estimate N e (Reid et al, 2004;Trask et al, 2017). It also utilised advanced methodologies for analysing capture-markrecapture data with random effects, time-varying covariates or multiple states (Fenn et al, 2021;Reid et al, 2003aReid et al, , 2008, estimation…”

“…data). Links between changing agricultural practices, chough foraging ecology and parasite burdens should also be investigated, especially given recent observations of substantial intestinal parasites' burdens in juvenile choughs (Fenn et al, 2021;Trask et al, 2020). Finally, since early analyses suggested the effects of temperature and rainfall on vital rates (Reid et al, 2003a(Reid et al, , 2008, potential impacts of climate change should also be projected.…”