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.

The importance of arable habitat for farmland birds in grassland landscapes

Abstract: Summary 1 Over the last 25 years, populations of seed-eating birds have declined severely over most of western Europe Local extinctions have occurred in grassland-dominated areas in western Britain, which may be influenced by loss in habitat diversity and a decline in the amount of arable cultivation 2 We used the large-scale British Breeding Bird Survey of 1998 to investigate the importance of arable habitat within grassland landscapes for 11 common seed-eating birds and four similar sized insectivores Generalized linear models were used to model the number of birds recorded in agricultural habitat within survey squares as a function of the amount of arable habitat present 3 Numbers of grey partridge Perdix perdix, skylark Alauda arvensis, tree sparrow Passer montanus, corn Miliaria calandra and reed buntings Emberiza schoeniclus, yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella and whitethroat Sylvia communis increased with the amount of arable habitat present in a survey square; the numbers of house sparrow Passer domesticus, four finch species, dunnock Prunella modularis, robin Erithacus rubecula and blackcap Sylvia atricapilla did not 4 The positive association between numbers of some species and arable habitat within 1-km squares was strongest where arable habitat was rare in the surrounding area, and weakest or even reversed when arable habitat was common These results demonstrate the scale-dependence of bird–habitat associations in agricultural landscapes, only demonstrable where data are available at fine grain over large geographical areas 5 These results support the hypothesis that range contractions (ie local extinctions) of some granivorous species have occurred because of contraction in arable cultivation The loss of arable habitat where it is scarce may be causing declines in some areas, even though intensification of arable management is thought to be the main cause of declines elsewhere Agri-environment schemes may need to vary between regions, for example to encourage arable cultivation in pastoral areas

The 2010 challenge: data availability, information needs and extraterrestrial insights.

Abstract: At the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, 190 countries endorsed a commitment to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national levels. A wide range of approaches is available to the monitoring of progress towards this objective. The strengths and weaknesses of many of these approaches are considered, with special attention being given to the proposed and existing indicators described in the other papers in this issue. Recommendations are made about the development of indicators. Most existing and proposed indicators use data collected for other purposes, which may be unrepresentative. In the short term, much remains to be done in expanding the databases and improving the statistical techniques that underpin these indicators to minimize potential biases. In the longer term, indicators based on unrepresentative data should be replaced with equivalents based on carefully designed sampling programmes. Many proposed and existing indicators do not connect clearly with human welfare and they are unlikely to engage the interest of governments, businesses and the public until they do so. The extent to which the indicators already proposed by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity are sufficient is explored by reference to the advice an imaginary scientific consultant from another planet might give. This exercise reveals that the range of taxa and biomes covered by existing indicators is incomplete compared with the knowledge we need to protect our interests. More fundamentally, our understanding of the mechanisms linking together the status of biodiversity, Earth system processes, human decisions and actions, and ecosystem services impacting human welfare is still too crude to allow us to infer reliably that actions taken to conserve biodiversity and protect ecosystem services are well chosen and effectively implemented. The involvement of social and Earth system scientists, as well as biologists, in collaborative research programmes to build and parameterize models of the Earth system to elucidate these mechanisms is a high priority.

A forensic approach to understanding diet and habitat use from stable isotope analysis of (avian) claw material

Abstract: Summary 1. The potential of using stable isotope signatures of avian claws in order to infer diet and habitat use was investigated. 2. Highly significant relationships observed between stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios ( δ 13 C, δ 15 N) in the claws and body feathers of resident birds were expected since it was predicted that they were synthesized in the same habitat and approximately the same time of year. 3. Likewise the non-significant relationships observed between δ 13 C and δ 15 N in the claws and tertial feathers of neotropical migrant birds were also predicted since the claws were synthesized in the wintering area and the tertials in the breeding area. 4. The growth rates measured in the claws of five species of palearctic passerines provide evidence that this tissue should integrate dietary and habitat information over a medium temporal scale (probably weeks to months). 5. It is suggested that claws may offer a unique combination of attributes to the isotope ecologist: they are non-invasively sampled; metabolically inert but grow continuously, and are therefore a more flexible tool than feathers. 6. It is also suggested that that the stable isotope signatures in the claws of mammals and reptiles may provide similar information.

Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents

Abstract: Global climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. Large-scale analyses have generally focused on the impacts of climate change on the geographic ranges of species and on phenology, the timing of ecological phenomena. We used long-term monitoring of the abundance of breeding birds across Europe and the United States to produce, for both regions, composite population indices for two groups of species: those for which climate suitability has been either improving or declining since 1980. The ratio of these composite indices, the climate impact indicator (CII), reflects the divergent fates of species favored or disadvantaged by climate change. The trend in CII is positive and similar in the two regions. On both continents, interspecific and spatial variation in population abundance trends are well predicted by climate suitability trends.

Emerging Infectious Disease Leads to Rapid Population Declines of Common British Birds

Abstract: Emerging infectious diseases are increasingly cited as threats to wildlife, livestock and humans alike. They can threaten geographically isolated or critically endangered wildlife populations; however, relatively few studies have clearly demonstrated the extent to which emerging diseases can impact populations of common wildlife species. Here, we report the impact of an emerging protozoal disease on British populations of greenfinch Carduelis chloris and chaffinch Fringilla coelebs, two of the most common birds in Britain. Morphological and molecular analyses showed this to be due to Trichomonas gallinae. Trichomonosis emerged as a novel fatal disease of finches in Britain in 2005 and rapidly became epidemic within greenfinch, and to a lesser extent chaffinch, populations in 2006. By 2007, breeding populations of greenfinches and chaffinches in the geographic region of highest disease incidence had decreased by 35% and 21% respectively, representing mortality in excess of half a million birds. In contrast, declines were less pronounced or absent in these species in regions where the disease was found in intermediate or low incidence. Also, populations of dunnock Prunella modularis, which similarly feeds in gardens, but in which T. gallinae was rarely recorded, did not decline. This is the first trichomonosis epidemic reported in the scientific literature to negatively impact populations of free-ranging non-columbiform species, and such levels of mortality and decline due to an emerging infectious disease are unprecedented in British wild bird populations. This disease emergence event demonstrates the potential for a protozoan parasite to jump avian host taxonomic groups with dramatic effect over a short time period.