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Evaluating the effectiveness of conservation measures for European grassland‐breeding waders

Farmland birds are among the most threatened bird species in Europe, largely as a result of agricultural intensification which has driven widespread biodiversity losses. Breeding waders associated with grassland and arable habitats are particularly vulnerable and a frequent focus of agri‐environment...

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Autores principales: Franks, Samantha E., Roodbergen, Maja, Teunissen, Wolf, Carrington Cotton, Anne, Pearce‐Higgins, James W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6238142/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30464827
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4532
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author Franks, Samantha E.
Roodbergen, Maja
Teunissen, Wolf
Carrington Cotton, Anne
Pearce‐Higgins, James W.
author_facet Franks, Samantha E.
Roodbergen, Maja
Teunissen, Wolf
Carrington Cotton, Anne
Pearce‐Higgins, James W.
author_sort Franks, Samantha E.
collection PubMed
description Farmland birds are among the most threatened bird species in Europe, largely as a result of agricultural intensification which has driven widespread biodiversity losses. Breeding waders associated with grassland and arable habitats are particularly vulnerable and a frequent focus of agri‐environment schemes (AES) designed to halt and reverse population declines. We review existing literature, providing a quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of policy and management interventions used throughout Europe to improve population and demographic metrics of grassland‐breeding waders. Targeted AES and site protection measures were more likely to be effective than less targeted AES and were ten times more likely to be effective than would be expected by chance, particularly for population trend and productivity metrics. Positive effects of AES and site protection did not appear synergistic. Management interventions which had the greatest chance of increasing population growth or productivity included modification of mowing regimes, increasing wet conditions, and the use of nest protection. Success rates varied according to the species and metric being evaluated. None of the policy or management interventions we evaluated were associated with a significant risk of negative impacts on breeding waders. Our findings support the use of agri‐environment schemes, site protection, and management measures for grassland‐breeding wader conservation in Europe. Due to publication bias, our findings are most applicable to intensively managed agricultural landscapes. More studies are needed to identify measures that increase chick survival. Despite broadly effective conservation measures already in use, grassland‐breeding waders in Europe continue to decline. More research is needed to improve the likelihood and magnitude of positive outcomes, coupled with wider implementation of effective measures to substantially increase favorable land management for these species.
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spelling pubmed-62381422018-11-21 Evaluating the effectiveness of conservation measures for European grassland‐breeding waders Franks, Samantha E. Roodbergen, Maja Teunissen, Wolf Carrington Cotton, Anne Pearce‐Higgins, James W. Ecol Evol Original Research Farmland birds are among the most threatened bird species in Europe, largely as a result of agricultural intensification which has driven widespread biodiversity losses. Breeding waders associated with grassland and arable habitats are particularly vulnerable and a frequent focus of agri‐environment schemes (AES) designed to halt and reverse population declines. We review existing literature, providing a quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of policy and management interventions used throughout Europe to improve population and demographic metrics of grassland‐breeding waders. Targeted AES and site protection measures were more likely to be effective than less targeted AES and were ten times more likely to be effective than would be expected by chance, particularly for population trend and productivity metrics. Positive effects of AES and site protection did not appear synergistic. Management interventions which had the greatest chance of increasing population growth or productivity included modification of mowing regimes, increasing wet conditions, and the use of nest protection. Success rates varied according to the species and metric being evaluated. None of the policy or management interventions we evaluated were associated with a significant risk of negative impacts on breeding waders. Our findings support the use of agri‐environment schemes, site protection, and management measures for grassland‐breeding wader conservation in Europe. Due to publication bias, our findings are most applicable to intensively managed agricultural landscapes. More studies are needed to identify measures that increase chick survival. Despite broadly effective conservation measures already in use, grassland‐breeding waders in Europe continue to decline. More research is needed to improve the likelihood and magnitude of positive outcomes, coupled with wider implementation of effective measures to substantially increase favorable land management for these species. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018-10-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6238142/ /pubmed/30464827 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4532 Text en © 2018 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Franks, Samantha E.
Roodbergen, Maja
Teunissen, Wolf
Carrington Cotton, Anne
Pearce‐Higgins, James W.
Evaluating the effectiveness of conservation measures for European grassland‐breeding waders
title Evaluating the effectiveness of conservation measures for European grassland‐breeding waders
title_full Evaluating the effectiveness of conservation measures for European grassland‐breeding waders
title_fullStr Evaluating the effectiveness of conservation measures for European grassland‐breeding waders
title_full_unstemmed Evaluating the effectiveness of conservation measures for European grassland‐breeding waders
title_short Evaluating the effectiveness of conservation measures for European grassland‐breeding waders
title_sort evaluating the effectiveness of conservation measures for european grassland‐breeding waders
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6238142/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30464827
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4532
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