The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?

Bird populations are declining globally with losses recorded in many European breeding birds. Habitat management measures have not resulted in widespread reversal of these declines. We analysed national bird population trends from ten European countries (France, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Po...

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Autores: McMahon, Barry J., Doyle, Susan, Mougeot, François, Arroyo, Beatriz
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/379343
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/379343
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Ground-nesting birds
Europe
Conservation
Mesopredators
Predator management
Wildlife management
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spelling The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?McMahon, Barry J.Doyle, SusanMougeot, FrançoisArroyo, BeatrizGround-nesting birdsEuropeConservationMesopredatorsPredator managementWildlife managementBird populations are declining globally with losses recorded in many European breeding birds. Habitat management measures have not resulted in widespread reversal of these declines. We analysed national bird population trends from ten European countries (France, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) for which data on individual bird species was freely available online in relation to the species’ nesting strategy (‘ground-nesting’ or ‘other’), Annex I designation (‘designated’ or ‘not designated’) and association with agricultural habitats for breeding (‘associated’ or ‘not associated’). For each country in our dataset, we also broadly categorised the following factors: farming intensity; predator community complexity; and predator control effort. Our results showed additive effects of nesting strategy, designation, and breeding habitats on the likelihood of population decline. Ground-nesting birds were 86 % more likely to decline than birds with other nesting strategies. Annex I designated species of the Birds Directive were 50 % less likely to decline than non-designated birds. Birds breeding primarily in agricultural habitat were more likely to decline than birds breeding in other habitats, interactively with farming intensity. Homogenous trends across Europe (i.e. trends in two or more countries that were either not declining in all countries or declining in all countries), indicate that the probability of population decline was related to nesting strategy and breeding habitat. Ground-nesting birds were 15.6 times more likely than other birds to have a declining trend across Europe, and birds nesting in agricultural habitats were 17.8 times more likely to decline than birds nesting in other habitats. Our results highlight a widespread challenge, therefore widespread instruments (e.g. legislation, economic policies, agri-environment schemes) will be required to reverse these declines. Ground-nesting species requirements can be complex and multiple strategies will be needed to restore populations including the development of predation management tools.B.J.M. was funded by UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science Career Development Scheme. We wish to thank the European Bird Census Council for making data available.Peer reviewedElsevierEuropean CommissionConsejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]202520252024info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501Publisher's versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10261/379343reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)InglésThe underlying dataset has been published as supplementary material of the article in the publisher platform at DOI 10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03213https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03213Síinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/3793432026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?
title The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?
spellingShingle The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?
McMahon, Barry J.
Ground-nesting birds
Europe
Conservation
Mesopredators
Predator management
Wildlife management
title_short The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?
title_full The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?
title_fullStr The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?
title_full_unstemmed The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?
title_sort The decline of ground nesting birds in Europe: Do we need to manage predation in addition to habitat?
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv McMahon, Barry J.
Doyle, Susan
Mougeot, François
Arroyo, Beatriz
author McMahon, Barry J.
author_facet McMahon, Barry J.
Doyle, Susan
Mougeot, François
Arroyo, Beatriz
author_role author
author2 Doyle, Susan
Mougeot, François
Arroyo, Beatriz
author2_role author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv European Commission
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ground-nesting birds
Europe
Conservation
Mesopredators
Predator management
Wildlife management
topic Ground-nesting birds
Europe
Conservation
Mesopredators
Predator management
Wildlife management
description Bird populations are declining globally with losses recorded in many European breeding birds. Habitat management measures have not resulted in widespread reversal of these declines. We analysed national bird population trends from ten European countries (France, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) for which data on individual bird species was freely available online in relation to the species’ nesting strategy (‘ground-nesting’ or ‘other’), Annex I designation (‘designated’ or ‘not designated’) and association with agricultural habitats for breeding (‘associated’ or ‘not associated’). For each country in our dataset, we also broadly categorised the following factors: farming intensity; predator community complexity; and predator control effort. Our results showed additive effects of nesting strategy, designation, and breeding habitats on the likelihood of population decline. Ground-nesting birds were 86 % more likely to decline than birds with other nesting strategies. Annex I designated species of the Birds Directive were 50 % less likely to decline than non-designated birds. Birds breeding primarily in agricultural habitat were more likely to decline than birds breeding in other habitats, interactively with farming intensity. Homogenous trends across Europe (i.e. trends in two or more countries that were either not declining in all countries or declining in all countries), indicate that the probability of population decline was related to nesting strategy and breeding habitat. Ground-nesting birds were 15.6 times more likely than other birds to have a declining trend across Europe, and birds nesting in agricultural habitats were 17.8 times more likely to decline than birds nesting in other habitats. Our results highlight a widespread challenge, therefore widespread instruments (e.g. legislation, economic policies, agri-environment schemes) will be required to reverse these declines. Ground-nesting species requirements can be complex and multiple strategies will be needed to restore populations including the development of predation management tools.
publishDate 2024
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2024
2025
2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
Publisher's version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/379343
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/379343
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv The underlying dataset has been published as supplementary material of the article in the publisher platform at DOI 10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03213
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03213

dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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