Cargando…

Abundance decline in the avifauna of the European Union reveals cross‐continental similarities in biodiversity change

Although global assessments provide evidence of biodiversity decline, some have questioned the strength of the evidence, with local assemblage studies often showing a more balanced picture of biodiversity change. The multifaceted nature of biodiversity and imperfect monitoring datasets may partially...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Burns, Fiona, Eaton, Mark A., Burfield, Ian J., Klvaňová, Alena, Šilarová, Eva, Staneva, Anna, Gregory, Richard D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668816/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938463
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8282
_version_ 1784614657836711936
author Burns, Fiona
Eaton, Mark A.
Burfield, Ian J.
Klvaňová, Alena
Šilarová, Eva
Staneva, Anna
Gregory, Richard D.
author_facet Burns, Fiona
Eaton, Mark A.
Burfield, Ian J.
Klvaňová, Alena
Šilarová, Eva
Staneva, Anna
Gregory, Richard D.
author_sort Burns, Fiona
collection PubMed
description Although global assessments provide evidence of biodiversity decline, some have questioned the strength of the evidence, with local assemblage studies often showing a more balanced picture of biodiversity change. The multifaceted nature of biodiversity and imperfect monitoring datasets may partially explain these findings. Here, using an extensive dataset, we find significant biodiversity loss in the native avifauna of the European Union (EU). We estimate a decline of 17–19% in the overall breeding bird abundance since 1980: a loss of 560–620 million individual birds. Both total and proportional declines in bird numbers are high among species associated with agricultural land. The distribution of species’ population growth rates (ln) is centered close to zero, with numerical decline driven by substantial losses in abundant species. Our work supports previous assessments indicating substantial recent biodiversity loss and calls to reduce the threat of extinctions and restore species’ abundances, for the sake of nature and people.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8668816
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-86688162021-12-21 Abundance decline in the avifauna of the European Union reveals cross‐continental similarities in biodiversity change Burns, Fiona Eaton, Mark A. Burfield, Ian J. Klvaňová, Alena Šilarová, Eva Staneva, Anna Gregory, Richard D. Ecol Evol Research Articles Although global assessments provide evidence of biodiversity decline, some have questioned the strength of the evidence, with local assemblage studies often showing a more balanced picture of biodiversity change. The multifaceted nature of biodiversity and imperfect monitoring datasets may partially explain these findings. Here, using an extensive dataset, we find significant biodiversity loss in the native avifauna of the European Union (EU). We estimate a decline of 17–19% in the overall breeding bird abundance since 1980: a loss of 560–620 million individual birds. Both total and proportional declines in bird numbers are high among species associated with agricultural land. The distribution of species’ population growth rates (ln) is centered close to zero, with numerical decline driven by substantial losses in abundant species. Our work supports previous assessments indicating substantial recent biodiversity loss and calls to reduce the threat of extinctions and restore species’ abundances, for the sake of nature and people. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-11-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8668816/ /pubmed/34938463 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8282 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Burns, Fiona
Eaton, Mark A.
Burfield, Ian J.
Klvaňová, Alena
Šilarová, Eva
Staneva, Anna
Gregory, Richard D.
Abundance decline in the avifauna of the European Union reveals cross‐continental similarities in biodiversity change
title Abundance decline in the avifauna of the European Union reveals cross‐continental similarities in biodiversity change
title_full Abundance decline in the avifauna of the European Union reveals cross‐continental similarities in biodiversity change
title_fullStr Abundance decline in the avifauna of the European Union reveals cross‐continental similarities in biodiversity change
title_full_unstemmed Abundance decline in the avifauna of the European Union reveals cross‐continental similarities in biodiversity change
title_short Abundance decline in the avifauna of the European Union reveals cross‐continental similarities in biodiversity change
title_sort abundance decline in the avifauna of the european union reveals cross‐continental similarities in biodiversity change
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668816/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938463
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8282
work_keys_str_mv AT burnsfiona abundancedeclineintheavifaunaoftheeuropeanunionrevealscrosscontinentalsimilaritiesinbiodiversitychange
AT eatonmarka abundancedeclineintheavifaunaoftheeuropeanunionrevealscrosscontinentalsimilaritiesinbiodiversitychange
AT burfieldianj abundancedeclineintheavifaunaoftheeuropeanunionrevealscrosscontinentalsimilaritiesinbiodiversitychange
AT klvanovaalena abundancedeclineintheavifaunaoftheeuropeanunionrevealscrosscontinentalsimilaritiesinbiodiversitychange
AT silarovaeva abundancedeclineintheavifaunaoftheeuropeanunionrevealscrosscontinentalsimilaritiesinbiodiversitychange
AT stanevaanna abundancedeclineintheavifaunaoftheeuropeanunionrevealscrosscontinentalsimilaritiesinbiodiversitychange
AT gregoryrichardd abundancedeclineintheavifaunaoftheeuropeanunionrevealscrosscontinentalsimilaritiesinbiodiversitychange