Quantifying the detrimental impacts of land-use and management change on European forest bird populations.

The ecological impacts of changing forest management practices in Europe are poorly understood despite European forests being highly managed. Furthermore, the effects of potential drivers of forest biodiversity decline are rarely considered in concert, thus limiting effective conservation or sustain...

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Main Authors: Amy S I Wade, Boris Barov, Ian J Burfield, Richard D Gregory, Ken Norris, Simon J Butler
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0064552&type=printable
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author Amy S I Wade
Boris Barov
Ian J Burfield
Richard D Gregory
Ken Norris
Simon J Butler
author_facet Amy S I Wade
Boris Barov
Ian J Burfield
Richard D Gregory
Ken Norris
Simon J Butler
author_sort Amy S I Wade
collection DOAJ
description The ecological impacts of changing forest management practices in Europe are poorly understood despite European forests being highly managed. Furthermore, the effects of potential drivers of forest biodiversity decline are rarely considered in concert, thus limiting effective conservation or sustainable forest management. We present a trait-based framework that we use to assess the detrimental impact of multiple land-use and management changes in forests on bird populations across Europe. Major changes to forest habitats occurring in recent decades, and their impact on resource availability for birds were identified. Risk associated with these changes for 52 species of forest birds, defined as the proportion of each species' key resources detrimentally affected through changes in abundance and/or availability, was quantified and compared to their pan-European population growth rates between 1980 and 2009. Relationships between risk and population growth were found to be significantly negative, indicating that resource loss in European forests is an important driver of decline for both resident and migrant birds. Our results demonstrate that coarse quantification of resource use and ecological change can be valuable in understanding causes of biodiversity decline, and thus in informing conservation strategy and policy. Such an approach has good potential to be extended for predictive use in assessing the impact of possible future changes to forest management and to develop more precise indicators of forest health.
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spelling doaj-art-d019ebb2858040cd94c0245e4565a8622025-08-20T02:30:38ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032013-01-0185e6455210.1371/journal.pone.0064552Quantifying the detrimental impacts of land-use and management change on European forest bird populations.Amy S I WadeBoris BarovIan J BurfieldRichard D GregoryKen NorrisSimon J ButlerThe ecological impacts of changing forest management practices in Europe are poorly understood despite European forests being highly managed. Furthermore, the effects of potential drivers of forest biodiversity decline are rarely considered in concert, thus limiting effective conservation or sustainable forest management. We present a trait-based framework that we use to assess the detrimental impact of multiple land-use and management changes in forests on bird populations across Europe. Major changes to forest habitats occurring in recent decades, and their impact on resource availability for birds were identified. Risk associated with these changes for 52 species of forest birds, defined as the proportion of each species' key resources detrimentally affected through changes in abundance and/or availability, was quantified and compared to their pan-European population growth rates between 1980 and 2009. Relationships between risk and population growth were found to be significantly negative, indicating that resource loss in European forests is an important driver of decline for both resident and migrant birds. Our results demonstrate that coarse quantification of resource use and ecological change can be valuable in understanding causes of biodiversity decline, and thus in informing conservation strategy and policy. Such an approach has good potential to be extended for predictive use in assessing the impact of possible future changes to forest management and to develop more precise indicators of forest health.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0064552&type=printable
spellingShingle Amy S I Wade
Boris Barov
Ian J Burfield
Richard D Gregory
Ken Norris
Simon J Butler
Quantifying the detrimental impacts of land-use and management change on European forest bird populations.
PLoS ONE
title Quantifying the detrimental impacts of land-use and management change on European forest bird populations.
title_full Quantifying the detrimental impacts of land-use and management change on European forest bird populations.
title_fullStr Quantifying the detrimental impacts of land-use and management change on European forest bird populations.
title_full_unstemmed Quantifying the detrimental impacts of land-use and management change on European forest bird populations.
title_short Quantifying the detrimental impacts of land-use and management change on European forest bird populations.
title_sort quantifying the detrimental impacts of land use and management change on european forest bird populations
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0064552&type=printable
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