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.

Global conservation of species' niches.

Abstract: Environmental change is rapidly accelerating, and many species will need to adapt to survive1. Ensuring that protected areas cover populations across a broad range of environmental conditions could safeguard the processes that lead to such adaptations1–3. However, international conservation policies have largely neglected these considerations when setting targets for the expansion of protected areas4. Here we show that—of 19,937 vertebrate species globally5–8—the representation of environmental conditions across their habitats in protected areas (hereafter, niche representation) is inadequate for 4,836 (93.1%) amphibian, 8,653 (89.5%) bird and 4,608 (90.9%) terrestrial mammal species. Expanding existing protected areas to cover these gaps would encompass 33.8% of the total land surface—exceeding the current target of 17% that has been adopted by governments. Priority locations for expanding the system of protected areas to improve niche representation occur in global biodiversity hotspots9, including Colombia, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and southwest China, as well as across most of the major land masses of the Earth. Conversely, we also show that planning for the expansion of protected areas without explicitly considering environmental conditions would marginally reduce the land area required to 30.7%, but that this would lead to inadequate niche representation for 7,798 (39.1%) species. As the governments of the world prepare to renegotiate global conservation targets, policymakers have the opportunity to help to maintain the adaptive potential of species by considering niche representation within protected areas1,2. Protected areas would need to expand to 33.8% of the total land surface to adequately represent environmental conditions across the habitats of amphibians, birds and terrestrial mammals, far exceeding the current 17% target.

A review of predation as a limiting factor for bird populations in mesopredator-rich landscapes: a case study of the UK.

Abstract: The impact of increasing vertebrate predator numbers on bird populations is widely debated among the general public, game managers and conservationists across Europe. However, there are few systematic reviews of whether predation limits the population sizes of European bird species. Views on the impacts of predation are particularly polarised in the UK, probably because the UK has a globally exceptional culture of intensive, high-yield gamebird management where predator removal is the norm. In addition, most apex predators have been exterminated or much depleted in numbers, contributing to a widely held perception that the UK has high numbers of mesopredators. This has resulted in many high-quality studies of mesopredator impacts over several decades. Here we present results from a systematic review of predator trends and abundance, and assess whether predation limits the population sizes of 90 bird species in the UK. Our results confirm that the generalist predators Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) and Crows (Corvus corone and C. cornix) occur at high densities in the UK compared with other European countries. In addition, some avian and mammalian predators have increased numerically in the UK during recent decades. Despite these high and increasing densities of predators, we found little evidence that predation limits populations of pigeons, woodpeckers and passerines, whereas evidence suggests that ground-nesting seabirds, waders and gamebirds can be limited by predation. Using life-history characteristics of prey species, we found that mainly long-lived species with high adult survival and late onset of breeding were limited by predation. Single-brooded species were also more likely to be limited by predation than multi-brooded species. Predators that depredate prey species during all life stages (i.e. from nest to adult stages) limited prey numbers more than predators that depredated only specific life stages (e.g. solely during the nest phase). The Red Fox and non-native mammals (e.g. the American Mink Neovison vison) were frequently identified as numerically limiting their prey species. Our review has identified predator-prey interactions that are particularly likely to result in population declines of prey species. In the short term, traditional predator-management techniques (e.g. lethal control or fencing to reduce predation by a small number of predator species) could be used to protect these vulnerable species. However, as these techniques are costly and time-consuming, we advocate that future research should identify land-use practices and landscape configurations that would reduce predator numbers and predation rates.

Local annual survival of booming male Great Bittern Botaurus stellaris in Britain, in the period 1990–1999

Abstract: Male Great Bitterns Botaurus stellaris have individually distinctive boom vocalizations which have been used since 1990 to count the British population accurately. We used vocal individuality to identify birds between years and analyse the survival of the British booming population. We used six instances of Great Bitterns known to be the same birds (from radio tracking and re-sighting of darvic rings) in successive years to provide a means of identification independent from vocalizations. All of these birds remained in the same territory from one year to the next. Seven spectrogram measures were chosen as quantitative descriptors of Great Bittern booms. Boom similarity was expressed in terms of Euclidean 'acoustic' distance between descriptors of pairs of birds. Great Bitterns that were known to be the same birds had more similar booms across years than those known to be different. The acoustic distances and knowledge of site fidelity were used to construct parsimonious rules on which to base re-identification decisions and to build survival histories. Great Bittern local survival in Britain as a whole was estimated as 70% (± 5.1 se) with survival in north-west England (at Leighton Moss) higher (82.8%, ± 7.3 se) than that in East Anglian sites (65.2%, ± 5.4 se) (X 2 1 = 3.4, P = 0.07). Movements of males between years were apparent between sites within the Suffolk and Norfolk coastal regions but not on a large scale. Survival of adult males in East Anglia was positively related to winter rainfall, but there was no significant relationship with winter temperature. There was a positive relationship between the annual population change in East Anglia and the annual local adult survival rate.