Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

About: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is a nonprofit organization based out in Sandy, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Biodiversity. The organization has 670 authors who have published 1425 publications receiving 88006 citations. The organization is also known as: RSPB & Plumage League.

Food for Pollinators: Quantifying the Nectar and Pollen Resources of Urban Flower Meadows

Abstract: Planted meadows are increasingly used to improve the biodiversity and aesthetic amenity value of urban areas. Although many ‘pollinator-friendly’ seed mixes are available, the floral resources these provide to flower-visiting insects, and how these change through time, are largely unknown. Such data are necessary to compare the resources provided by alternative meadow seed mixes to each other and to other flowering habitats. We used quantitative surveys of over 2 million flowers to estimate the nectar and pollen resources offered by two exemplar commercial seed mixes (one annual, one perennial) and associated weeds grown as 300m2 meadows across four UK cities, sampled at six time points between May and September 2013. Nectar sugar and pollen rewards per flower varied widely across 65 species surveyed, with native British weed species (including dandelion, Taraxacum agg.) contributing the top five nectar producers and two of the top ten pollen producers. Seed mix species yielding the highest rewards per flower included Leontodon hispidus, Centaurea cyanus and C. nigra for nectar, and Papaver rhoeas, Eschscholzia californica and Malva moschata for pollen. Perennial meadows produced up to 20x more nectar and up to 6x more pollen than annual meadows, which in turn produced far more than amenity grassland controls. Perennial meadows produced resources earlier in the year than annual meadows, but both seed mixes delivered very low resource levels early in the year and these were provided almost entirely by native weeds. Pollen volume per flower is well predicted statistically by floral morphology, and nectar sugar mass and pollen volume per unit area are correlated with flower counts, raising the possibility that resource levels can be estimated for species or habitats where they cannot be measured directly. Our approach does not incorporate resource quality information (for example, pollen protein or essential amino acid content), but can easily do so when suitable data exist. Our approach should inform the design of new seed mixes to ensure continuity in floral resource availability throughout the year, and to identify suitable species to fill resource gaps in established mixes.

Above ground biomass estimation in an African tropical forest with lidar and hyperspectral data

Abstract: The estimation of above ground biomass in forests is critical for carbon cycle modeling and climate change mitigation programs. Small footprint lidar provides accurate biomass estimates, but its application in tropical forests has been limited, particularly in Africa. Hyperspectral data record canopy spectral information that is potentially related to forest biomass. To assess lidar ability to retrieve biomass in an African forest and the usefulness of including hyperspectral information, we modeled biomass using small footprint lidar metrics as well as airborne hyperspectral bands and derived vegetation indexes. Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) was adopted to cope with multiple inputs and multicollinearity issues; the Variable of Importance in the Projection was calculated to evaluate importance of individual predictors for biomass. Our findings showed that the integration of hyperspectral bands (R2 = 0.70) improved the model based on lidar alone (R2 = 0.64), this encouraging result call for additional research to clarify the possible role of hyperspectral data in tropical regions. Replacing the hyperspectral bands with vegetation indexes resulted in a smaller improvement (R2 = 0.67). Hyperspectral bands had limited predictive power (R2 = 0.36) when used alone. This analysis proves the efficiency of using PLSR with small-footprint lidar and high resolution hyperspectral data in tropical forests for biomass estimation. Results also suggest that high quality ground truth data is crucial for lidar-based AGB estimates in tropical African forests, especially if airborne lidar is used as an intermediate step of upscaling field-measured AGB to a larger area.

Removing the Threat of Diclofenac to Critically Endangered Asian Vultures

Abstract: Veterinary use of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug diclofenac in South Asia has resulted in the collapse of populations of three vulture species of the genusGyps to the most severe category of global extinction risk. Vultures are exposed to diclofenac when scavenging on livestock treated with the drug shortly before death. Diclofenac causes kidney damage, increased serum uric acid concentrations, visceral gout, and death. Concern about this issue led the Indian Government to announce its intention to ban the veterinary use of diclofenac by September 2005. Implementation of a ban is still in progress late in 2005, and to facilitate this we sought potential alternative NSAIDs by obtaining information from captive bird collections worldwide. We found that the NSAID meloxicam had been administered to 35 captiveGyps vultures with no apparent ill effects. We then undertook a phased programme of safety testing of meloxicam on the African white-backed vultureGyps africanus, which we had previously established to be as susceptible to diclofenac poisoning as the endangered AsianGyps vultures. We estimated the likely maximum level of exposure (MLE) of wild vultures and dosed birds by gavage (oral administration) with increasing quantities of the drug until the likely MLE was exceeded in a sample of 40G. africanus. Subsequently, sixG. africanus were fed tissues from cattle which had been treated with a higher than standard veterinary course of meloxicam prior to death. In the final phase, ten Asian vultures of two of the endangered species(Gyps bengalensis,Gyps indicus) were dosed with meloxicam by gavage; five of them at more than the likely MLE dosage. All meloxicam-treated birds survived all treatments, and none suffered any obvious clinical effects. Serum uric acid concentrations remained within the normal limits throughout, and were significantly lower than those from birds treated with diclofenac in other studies. We conclude that meloxicam is of low toxicity toGyps vultures and that its use in place of diclofenac would reduce vulture mortality substantially in the Indian subcontinent. Meloxicam is already available for veterinary use in India.

Estimating bird abundance : making methods work

Abstract: Summary In many bird monitoring surveys, no attempt is made to estimate bird densities or abundance. Instead, counts of one form or another are made, and these are assumed to correlate with bird density. Unless complete counts on sample plots are feasible, this approach can easily lead to false conclusions, because detectability of birds varies by species, habitat, observer and many other factors. Trends in time of counts often reflect trends in detectability, rather than trends in abundance. Conclusions are further compromised when surveys are conducted at unrepresentative sites. We consider how to avoid these problems. We give a brief description of distance sampling methods, which allow detectability to be estimated. We consider strategies to ease their implementation, to enhance their reliability, to adapt the methods for difficult species, and to deal with circumstances in which representative sampling is problematic. We also consider some of the common problems encountered, and suggest solutions.

The selection of stubble fields by wintering granivorous birds reflects vegetation cover and food abundance

Abstract: Summary 1 Fields left fallow after harvest (i.e. stubble fields) support high wintering densities of many species of granivorous bird. We examined correlates of use by eight such species of different types of intensively managed wheat and barley stubble fields, organic wheat fields and set-aside fields on mixed lowland farmland in central England. Field occupancy was studied in relation to the physical characteristics of fields and seed abundance. 2 Higher seed abundance was associated with greater occupancy by linnet Carduelis cannabina, grey partridge Perdix perdix, chaffinch Fringilla coelebs, yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella, reed bunting Emberiza schoeniclus and corn bunting Miliaria calandra. Larger areas of bare earth within stubble fields were associated with greater occupancy by linnet, yellowhammer, reed bunting and corn bunting, but lower occupancy by woodpigeon Columba palumbus. 3 On conventional intensively farmed sites, seed abundance and area of bare earth were significantly greater on barley stubbles than on wheat stubbles. 4 Seed numbers fell throughout the winter in all stubble types, although reductions were greatest on intensive barley stubbles, intermediate on intensive wheat stubble and lowest on undersown organic wheat stubbles. 5 Within fields occupied by linnets, areas used for feeding had significantly greater quantities of seeds known to be important in their diet. Feeding areas also had a greater area of bare earth than randomly selected ‘non-feeding areas’. 6 Linnets and reed buntings were rarely found on fields where densities of weed seeds important in their diets fell below 250 seeds m−2. In autumn, yellowhammers and grey partridges rarely fed on fields where cereal grain density was below 50 m−2. However, in spring, both species fed on these fields irrespective of grain density, perhaps indicating a switch to other food sources. 7 We suggest that land managers wishing to maximize the value of overwinter stubble fields for granivorous birds locate such fields where there is a substantial natural regeneration of weed flora and where previous cropping (e.g. barley) is likely to offer a sparse stubble with substantial areas of bare ground.