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Institution

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

NonprofitSandy, United Kingdom
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.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This year's recipients include Julie M. Mallon, Marlee A. Tucker, Annalea Beard, Richard O. Newman, Steffen Oppel, Yotam Orchan, Diann J. Prosser, Hannah Riley, Sascha Rösner, Dana G. Schabo, Holger Schulz, Scott Shaffer, Adam Shreading, João Paulo Silva, Jolene Sim, Henrik Skov, Orr Spiegel, Matthew J. Stuber.
Abstract: Timing of activity can reveal an organism's efforts to optimize foraging either by minimizing energy loss through passive movement or by maximizing energetic gain through foraging. Here, we assess whether signals of either of these strategies are detectable in the timing of activity of daily, local movements by birds. We compare the similarities of timing of movement activity among species using six temporal variables: start of activity relative to sunrise, end of activity relative to sunset, relative speed at midday, number of movement bouts, bout duration and proportion of active daytime hours. We test for the influence of flight mode and foraging habitat on the timing of movement activity across avian guilds. We used 64 570 days of GPS movement data collected between 2002 and 2019 for local (non-migratory) movements of 991 birds from 49 species, representing 14 orders. Dissimilarity among daily activity patterns was best explained by flight mode. Terrestrial soaring birds began activity later and stopped activity earlier than pelagic soaring or flapping birds. Broad-scale foraging habitat explained less of the clustering patterns because of divergent timing of active periods of pelagic surface and diving foragers. Among pelagic birds, surface foragers were active throughout all 24 hrs of the day while diving foragers matched their active hours more closely to daylight hours. Pelagic surface foragers also had the greatest daily foraging distances, which was consistent with their daytime activity patterns. This study demonstrates that flight mode and foraging habitat influence temporal patterns of daily movement activity of birds.

19 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Investigating the effect on the three major invertebrate groups—Diptera, Hemiptera and Arachnida—together with total invertebrates and total biomass of coppice species living under oak Quercus standards at the Blean Woods complex in Kent finds densities and biomass values were highest in hornbeam and lowest in sweet chestnut.

19 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Local differences in bill sizes on Gough Island are reported, with typical adults breeding in some areas and narrower-billed birds in other areas suggesting that they are a separate species, not an example of bill polymorphism.
Abstract: Prions Pachyptila are abundant seabirds in the Southern Ocean that have been used to infer environmental change, but this relies on an understanding of their morphological diversity. Species limits among prions are largely defined by the size and structure of their bills. The broad-billed prion P. vittata, which breeds at temperate islands in the central South Atlantic Ocean and around New Zealand, is the largest species with adult bill widths averaging 21–22 mm. We report local differences in bill sizes on Gough Island, with typical adults breeding in some areas and narrower-billed birds in other areas (average bill width 18–19 mm, although at one site there was a second mode at bill widths of 16–17 mm). The narrow-billed birds have slightly shorter bills, heads and wings (averaging 1–2 % smaller than typical adult broad-billed prions), but the difference in bill width is much more marked (15 %). The small-billed birds differ from typical broad-billed prions in having blue colouration in the upper mandible and are similar in size to MacGillivray’s prion P. [salvini/vittata] macgillivrayi from Amsterdam and St Paul islands in the temperate Indian Ocean. The occurrence of two prion morphs on Gough Island raises intriguing questions about their ecology and systematics. Small-billed birds breed 3 months later than large-billed birds, suggesting that they are a separate species, not an example of bill polymorphism.

19 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used a maximum entropy modeling approach based on static and dynamic oceanographic parameters to determine optimal feeding habitat for black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) at two colonies during two consecutive breeding seasons.

19 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of tree-fall canopy gaps on the activity of decomposer communities and the rate of deadwood decay in tropical rainforests was investigated. And the authors showed that this accelerated decomposition increases regional wood decay rate by up to 18.2%.
Abstract: Tree mortality rates are increasing within tropical rainforests as a result of global environmental change. When trees die, gaps are created in forest canopies and carbon is transferred from the living to deadwood pools. However, little is known about the effect of tree-fall canopy gaps on the activity of decomposer communities and the rate of deadwood decay in forests. This means that the accuracy of regional and global carbon budgets is uncertain, especially given ongoing changes to the structure of rainforest ecosystems. Therefore, to determine the effect of canopy openings on wood decay rates and regional carbon flux, we carried out the first assessment of deadwood mass loss within canopy gaps in old-growth rainforest. We used replicated canopy gaps paired with closed canopy sites in combination with macroinvertebrate accessible and inaccessible woodblocks to experimentally partition the relative contribution of microbes vs. termites to decomposition within contrasting understorey conditions. We show that over a 12 month period, wood mass loss increased by 63% in canopy gaps compared with closed canopy sites and that this increase was driven by termites. Using LiDAR data to quantify the proportion of canopy openings in the study region, we modelled the effect of observed changes in decomposition within gaps on regional carbon flux. Overall, we estimate that this accelerated decomposition increases regional wood decay rate by up to 18.2%, corresponding to a flux increase of 0.27 Mg C ha-1 year-1 that is not currently accounted for in regional carbon budgets. These results provide the first insights into how small-scale disturbances in rainforests can generate hotspots for decomposer activity and carbon fluxes. In doing so, we show that including canopy gap dynamics and their impacts on wood decomposition in forest ecosystems can help improve the predictive accuracy of the carbon cycle in land surface models.

19 citations


Authors

Showing all 672 results

NameH-indexPapersCitations
Andrew Balmford9129033359
Rhys E. Green7828530428
Richard D. Gregory6116518428
Richard Evans4830610513
Rafael Mateo462387091
Deborah J. Pain46996717
Jeremy D. Wilson4512312587
Les G. Underhill452338217
Richard B. Bradbury421138062
Paul F. Donald4111711153
James W. Pearce-Higgins401445623
Jörn P. W. Scharlemann408416393
Juliet A. Vickery391168494
Mark A. Taggart381113703
Patrick W Thompson381446379
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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Institution in previous years
YearPapers
20224
202190
202073
201993
201882
201770