http://millerlab.nres.illinois.edu/pdfs/Estimating%20the%20cumulative%20effects%20of%20development%20on%20wildlife%20habitat.pdf

Estimating the cumulative effects of development on wildlife habitat

A review of the impacts of nature based recreation on birds.

Disturbance – the response of birds to a stimulus such as the presence of a person – is considered a conservation threat for some Australian birds. The distance at which a bird flees from perceived danger is defined as the flight-initiation distance (FID), and could be used to designate separation distances between birds and stimuli that might cause disturbance. We review the known FIDs for Australian birds, and report FIDs for 250 species. Most FIDs are from south-eastern Australia, and almost all refer to a single walker as the stimulus. Several prominent factors correlated with FID are discussed (e.g. body mass and the distance at which an approach begins). FIDs have not been used extensively in the management of disturbance, for a variety of reasons including lack and inaccessibility of available data. We call for standardised data collection and greater application of available data to the management of disturbance.

/pdf/a-review-of-flight-initiation-distances-and-their-3dg117yur2.pdf

A review of flight-initiation distances and their application to managing disturbance to Australian birds

Research on impacts of human activity and infrastructure development on reindeer and caribou (Rangifer tarandus) is reviewed in the context of spatial (m to many km) and temporal (min to decades) scales. Before the 1980s, most disturbance studies were behavioral studies of individual animals at local scales, reporting few and short-term (min to h) impacts within 0–2 km from human activity. Around the mid 1980s, focus shifted to regional-scale landscape studies, reporting that Rangifer reduced the use of areas within 5 km from infrastructure and human activity by 50–95% for weeks, months or even years and increased use of remaining undisturbed habitat far beyond those distances. The extent could vary with type of disturbance, sex, terrain, season, and sensitivity of herds. Of 85 studies reviewed, 83% of the regional studies concluded that the impacts of human activity were significant, while only 13% of the local studies did the same. Accurate assessment of impacts from human activity requires regional-scale studies, a pattern confirmed in a few long-term (decades) pre- and post-development studies. Such long-term studies are needed to improve understanding of both temporal and spatial patterns.

/pdf/the-matter-of-spatial-and-temporal-scales-a-review-of-10fsueu8g2.pdf

The matter of spatial and temporal scales: a review of reindeer and caribou response to human activity

1. In most situations that have been studied, the creation of refuge areas for migratory waterfowl has generally increased the number of waterfowl using a site. However, experimental evidence to show that the increases were caused by reduced disturbance and not by confounding factors, e.g. improvement of habitat quality of the sites or general population increases, is generally lacking.



2. In two Danish coastal wetlands, waterfowl hunting was the most critical source of disturbance to autumn-staging waterfowl (Madsen 1998). To test whether hunting disturbance displaced birds from sites, experimental refuge areas were established, with hunting-free areas manipulated annually during a 4-year period, followed by permanent refuge establishments, monitored for a further 4 years.



3. In both areas, experiments showed that quarry geese and dabbling ducks redistributed according to the position of the hunting-free areas, whereas protected species did not. In quarry geese, there was a 6–8-fold increase in numbers from before to after the experiments; in quarry dabbling ducks there was a 4–50-fold increase. Dabbling ducks extended the staging period into the winter. Protected waterfowl as well as goldeneye and coot (both quarry species) did not redistribute; their numbers either fluctuated or increased (2 to > 50 fold).



4. In quarry geese and dabbling ducks, changes in food supplies (of the herbivorous species), intensities of recreational activities outside the refuge areas, weather or overall population sizes could not explain the increases. In protected species, as well as goldeneye and coot, trends in local numbers were in accordance with overall population trends for some species; in others, the rate of increase in local numbers was higher than in overall population size.



5. In both areas, species richness increased from before to after the experiments. This was most pronounced in one of the areas where the refuge included shallow-watered areas in association with salt marshes.



6. It is concluded that prior to experiments, waterfowl hunting caused a displacement of quarry species, resulting in a species-poor waterfowl community. Refuge creation is an efficient management tool to improve the conservation value and biodiversity of wetlands of importance to waterfowl.

Experimental refuges for migratory waterfowl in Danish wetlands. II. Tests of hunting disturbance effects

http://tearai.kete.net.nz/documents/0000/0000/0105/disturb_eco_effects.pdf

M. Gorman

Papers

Examination of the effects of disturbance on birds with reference to its importance in ecological assessments