Declining populations of European mountain birds
Lehikoinen, A., Brotons, L., Calladine, J., Calvi, G., Campedelli, T., Escandell, V., Flousek, J., Grueneberg, C., Haas, F., Harris, S., Herrando, S., Husby, M., Jiguet, F., Kålås, J. A., Lindström, Å., Lorrilliere, R., Pladevall, C., Sattler, T., Schmid, H., Sirkiä, P., Teufelbauer, N. and Trautmann, S. (2018). Declining populations of European mountain birds. 5th European Congress of Conservation Biology. doi: 10.17011/conference/eccb2018/107638
Authors
Date
2018Copyright
© the Authors, 2018
Mountain areas often hold special species communities and are thus in the high priority list of conservation. Changes in human land use, such as grazing pressure and afforestation, and especially in climate have been suggested as major threats for biodiversity in the mountain areas, because species have difficulties to find new suitable habitats in circumstances. Despite the special species communities very little is known about the population trends of species in mountain areas [1,2]. Here we studied population trends of 44 bird species in four major European mountain regions: Fennoscandia, UK upland, south-western (including Pyrenees) and south-central mountains (including Alps), covering 12 countries. We predicted that more species should show negative trends due to unfavourable environmental conditions. We also predicted the declines to be more severe in mountain specialists compared to mountain generalists, which are also found in the lowlands. We found in accordance with our predictions that mountain bird species have experienced significant declines (c. -7%) during 2002–2014. Mountain specialists showed a significant c. -10% decline in population numbers, and the slope for generalists was also negative but not significantly so. The slopes of specialists and generalists did not differ from each other. Fennoscandian and south-western populations were on average declining, but UK or south-central mountain birds showed on average stable situations. Our findings support the hypothesis that mountain species are declining. Thus more efforts should be undertaken to identify the causes of decline in order to protect these populations.
[1] Lehikoinen, A., Green, M., Husby, M., Kålås, J. A. & Lindström, Å. 2014: Common montane birds are declining in northern Europe. Journal of Avian Biology 45: 3–14.
[2] Scridel, D., Brambilla, M., Martin, K., Lehikoinen, A., Iemma, A., Anderle, M., Jähnig, S., Caprio, E., Bogliani, G., Pedrini, P., Rolando, A., Arlettaz, R. & Chamberlain, D. E.: The effect of climate change on holarctic mountain and upland birds: a review and meta-analysis. Ibis (in press).
...
![showless](/themes/JYX2//images/showless.png)
![showmore](/themes/JYX2//images/showmore.png)
Publisher
Open Science Centre, University of JyväskyläConference
ECCB2018: 5th European Congress of Conservation Biology. 12th - 15th of June 2018, Jyväskylä, Finland
Original source
https://peerageofscience.org/conference/eccb2018/107638/Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- ECCB 2018 [712]
License
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
How to Sail a Sinking Ship : Adapting to the Declining Competitiveness of the European Shipping Industry
Tenold, Stig; Ojala, Jari (Routledge, 2017) -
Review Essay : Mountains, History, and Nature : A View Back from the Anthropocene Towards Historical Mountaineering Literature
Salovaara, Harri (European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and the Environment, 2022)Review essay of Caroline Schaumann’s Peak Pursuits: The Emergence of Mountaineering in the Nineteenth Century and of the anthology edited by Sean Ireton and Caroline Schaumann, Mountains and the German Mind: Translations ... -
Non-native trees alter biomass and nutrient availability in mountain streams of the Cape Floristic Region, a global biodiversity hotspot
Simaika, John (Open Science Centre, University of Jyväskylä, 2018)The invasion by alien trees of riparian zones may lead to significant alterations in the amount and timing of leaf litter inputs to freshwater ecosystems, consequently affecting stream ecological functioning. Invasive ... -
Ecosystem services and assessment of the soil biological activity exemplified by the mountain chernozem soils of the Central Caucasus
Tembotov, Rustam (Open Science Centre, University of Jyväskylä, 2018)Different subtypes of mountain chernozem soils (total area 845 km2) of Kabardino-Balkar Republic formed at a height range of over 500 m a.s.l. within the elbrusskiy variant of vertical zones distribution of the Central ... -
An Elegy for Rivers and Mountains : A Conversation with Artist Zhang Kechun
Yang, Jing (University of Jyväskylä; Contact details: Open Science Centre, University of Jyväskylä, email: jyx@jyu.fi, website: https://osc.jyu.fi/en, 2017)Chinese artist Zhang Kechun was the winner of the Discovery Award at the 45th Rencontres d’Arles and 2015 Contemporary Talents Competition. Zhang Kechun’s elegant and tranquil photos revealed the impact of human activity ...