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.

Biofuel plantations on forested lands: Double jeopardy for biodiversity and climate

Abstract: The growing demand for biofuels is promoting the expansion of a number of agricultural commodities, including oil palm (Elaeis guineensis). Oil-palm plantations cover over 13 million ha, primarily in Southeast Asia, where they have directly or indirectly replaced tropical rainforest. We explored the impact of the spread of oil-palm plantations on greenhouse gas emission and biodiversity. We assessed changes in carbon stocks with changing land use and compared this with the amount of fossil-fuel carbon emission avoided through its replacement by biofuel carbon. We estimated it would take between 75 and 93 years for the carbon emissions saved through use of biofuel to compensate for the carbon lost through forest conversion, depending on how the forest was cleared. If the original habitat was peatland, carbon balance would take more than 600 years. Conversely, planting oil palms on degraded grassland would lead to a net removal of carbon within 10 years. These estimates have associated uncertainty, but their magnitude and relative proportions seem credible. We carried out a meta-analysis of published faunal studies that compared forest with oil palm. We found that plantations supported species-poor communities containing few forest species. Because no published data on flora were available, we present results from our sampling of plants in oil palm and forest plots in Indonesia. Although the species richness of pteridophytes was higher in plantations, they held few forest species. Trees, lianas, epiphytic orchids, and indigenous palms were wholly absent from oil-palm plantations. The majority of individual plants and animals in oil-palm plantations belonged to a small number of generalist species of low conservation concern. As countries strive to meet obligations to reduce carbon emissions under one international agreement (Kyoto Protocol), they may not only fail to meet their obligations under another (Convention on Biological Diversity) but may actually hasten global climate change. Reducing deforestation is likely to represent a more effective climate-change mitigation strategy than converting forest for biofuel production, and it may help nations meet their international commitments to reduce biodiversity loss.

Habitat use and site fidelity of Green Sandpipers Tringa ochropus wintering in Southern England

Abstract: Between 1982 and 1991 Green Sandpipers were studied in mid-Hertfordshire through regular counts and observations of colour-ringed birds. Birds were present in the study area in every month of the year but only in low numbers during May. Overall, throughout the year, 35.1 % of the birds were found at gravel pit complexes and 37.8 % at disused watercress beds. There was a marked shift from gravel pits in summer and autumn to disused watercress beds and stream sides in winter. Colour-ringing showed that the population consisted mainly of birds which regularly spent the winter in the area; the overall return rate from one winter to the next was 83.5%. Individual birds changed sites between autumn and winter in a similar way to the population as a whole and, in mid-winter, were extremely faithful to particular sites to which they returned each year. The return rates from one winter to the next are negatively correlated with the number of nights with air frost in the first winter.

Solo and duet calling in the pheasant coucal: sex and individual call differences in a nesting cuckoo with reversed size dimorphism

Abstract: Duetting and female vocalisations have rarely been studied in tropical non-passerines. In coucals, a subfamily of nesting cuckoos, these behaviours have evolved under unusual conditions of male-biased parental care and reversed sexual size dimorphism. Here we provide the first detailed description of the structure and occurrence of sex-specific calls and duets in a monogamous coucal species, the pheasant coucal, Centropus phasianinus. Pheasant coucals of either sex use two types of far-reaching (>1 km) calls in their solo and duet displays: the ‘descending whoops’ call and, less frequently (25%), ‘scale’ calls. Both calls are series of very deep hooting notes that the larger females produce at lower frequency than the males (~326 versus 480 Hz). Descending whoops calls also vary among individuals but this difference is not consistent enough for individual identification. Most duets (63%) comprise a single scale call by each partner and the sexes start duets with equal frequency. Duetting triggers neighbouring pairs to duet too, suggesting a role in territory defence. Calling is most intense in the morning and early in the breeding season. The cryptic behaviour of coucals makes their calls an important tool for studies on their mating system, survey work and taxonomic research.

Productivity of White-Tailed Tropicbird on Aride Island, Seychelles

Abstract: Nine years (1989/90-2002) of data on a asynchronous pelagic seabird, the White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus), breeding on Aride Island, Seychelles, were used to examine: (1) annual variation in productivity and, (2) the importance of large scale (El Nino Southern Oscillation) factors in explaining productivity levels. In 2001 and 2002, we examined the influence of local scale factors (parasitism by hard ticks Amblyomma loculosum and intra- and inter-specific competition for nest-sites) on productivity. Productivity between years only ranged from 0.21 to 0.37 chicks/breeding pair, but it was nevertheless significantly and inversely correlated with the El Nino index. No influence on productivity was caused by local factors. The frequency distribution of chick deaths varied significantly with chick age in 2001 but not in 2002. Most of the chick deaths were from starvation, in particular for chicks older than 20 days. As opposed to synchronous seabird species, there were no years with total b...