Cargando…

Habitat Effects on the Breeding Performance of Three Forest-Dwelling Hawks

Habitat loss causes population declines, but the mechanisms are rarely known. In the European Boreal Zone, loss of old forest due to intensive forestry is suspected to cause declines in forest-dwelling raptors by reducing their breeding performance. We studied the boreal breeding habitat and habitat...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Björklund, Heidi, Valkama, Jari, Tomppo, Erkki, Laaksonen, Toni
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4589344/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26422684
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137877
_version_ 1782392773627871232
author Björklund, Heidi
Valkama, Jari
Tomppo, Erkki
Laaksonen, Toni
author_facet Björklund, Heidi
Valkama, Jari
Tomppo, Erkki
Laaksonen, Toni
author_sort Björklund, Heidi
collection PubMed
description Habitat loss causes population declines, but the mechanisms are rarely known. In the European Boreal Zone, loss of old forest due to intensive forestry is suspected to cause declines in forest-dwelling raptors by reducing their breeding performance. We studied the boreal breeding habitat and habitat-associated breeding performance of the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and European honey buzzard (Pernis apivorus). We combined long-term Finnish bird-of-prey data with multi-source national forest inventory data at various distances (100–4000 m) around the hawk nests. We found that breeding success of the goshawk was best explained by the habitat within a 2000-m radius around the nests; breeding was more successful with increasing proportions of old spruce forest and water, and decreasing proportions of young thinning forest. None of the habitat variables affected significantly the breeding success of the common buzzard or the honey buzzard, or the brood size of any of the species. The amount of old spruce forest decreased both around goshawk and common buzzard nests and throughout southern Finland in 1992–2010. In contrast, the area of young forest increased in southern Finland but not around hawk nests. We emphasize the importance of studying habitats at several spatial and temporal scales to determine the relevant species-specific scale and to detect environmental changes. Further effort is needed to reconcile the socioeconomic and ecological functions of forests and habitat requirements of old forest specialists.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4589344
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-45893442015-10-02 Habitat Effects on the Breeding Performance of Three Forest-Dwelling Hawks Björklund, Heidi Valkama, Jari Tomppo, Erkki Laaksonen, Toni PLoS One Research Article Habitat loss causes population declines, but the mechanisms are rarely known. In the European Boreal Zone, loss of old forest due to intensive forestry is suspected to cause declines in forest-dwelling raptors by reducing their breeding performance. We studied the boreal breeding habitat and habitat-associated breeding performance of the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and European honey buzzard (Pernis apivorus). We combined long-term Finnish bird-of-prey data with multi-source national forest inventory data at various distances (100–4000 m) around the hawk nests. We found that breeding success of the goshawk was best explained by the habitat within a 2000-m radius around the nests; breeding was more successful with increasing proportions of old spruce forest and water, and decreasing proportions of young thinning forest. None of the habitat variables affected significantly the breeding success of the common buzzard or the honey buzzard, or the brood size of any of the species. The amount of old spruce forest decreased both around goshawk and common buzzard nests and throughout southern Finland in 1992–2010. In contrast, the area of young forest increased in southern Finland but not around hawk nests. We emphasize the importance of studying habitats at several spatial and temporal scales to determine the relevant species-specific scale and to detect environmental changes. Further effort is needed to reconcile the socioeconomic and ecological functions of forests and habitat requirements of old forest specialists. Public Library of Science 2015-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC4589344/ /pubmed/26422684 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137877 Text en © 2015 Björklund et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Björklund, Heidi
Valkama, Jari
Tomppo, Erkki
Laaksonen, Toni
Habitat Effects on the Breeding Performance of Three Forest-Dwelling Hawks
title Habitat Effects on the Breeding Performance of Three Forest-Dwelling Hawks
title_full Habitat Effects on the Breeding Performance of Three Forest-Dwelling Hawks
title_fullStr Habitat Effects on the Breeding Performance of Three Forest-Dwelling Hawks
title_full_unstemmed Habitat Effects on the Breeding Performance of Three Forest-Dwelling Hawks
title_short Habitat Effects on the Breeding Performance of Three Forest-Dwelling Hawks
title_sort habitat effects on the breeding performance of three forest-dwelling hawks
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4589344/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26422684
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137877
work_keys_str_mv AT bjorklundheidi habitateffectsonthebreedingperformanceofthreeforestdwellinghawks
AT valkamajari habitateffectsonthebreedingperformanceofthreeforestdwellinghawks
AT tomppoerkki habitateffectsonthebreedingperformanceofthreeforestdwellinghawks
AT laaksonentoni habitateffectsonthebreedingperformanceofthreeforestdwellinghawks