Effective conservation is often informed by focal species studies to identify beneficial land man... more Effective conservation is often informed by focal species studies to identify beneficial land management interventions. For nocturnal or cryptic species, quantifying habitat use across individually marked animals can allow unbiased assessment of intervention efficacy and identify other important habitats. Here, using a landscape‐scale experiment, we examine whether interventions intended to create nesting habitat for the largely nocturnal Eurasian Stone‐curlew Burhinus oedicnemus within semi‐natural grassland also provide foraging habitat. GPS loggers were fitted to five adult Stone‐curlews during the breeding season within an extensive area of semi‐natural grassland (3850 ha, hereafter ‘grassland’), surrounded by a mosaic of arable cropland (total study area 118 600 ha). The largely closed‐sward grassland was diversified by experimental ground‐disturbance plots (the intervention) prior to this study. We used the GPS fixes to identify 1881 foraging locations (510 during nesting and ...
Numerous deer species have been introduced beyond their native range into ecosystems around the w... more Numerous deer species have been introduced beyond their native range into ecosystems around the world. Their economic value leads to further accidental and deliberate releases and lack of control is contributing to range expansion in Australia, South America and Europe. Despite localised or regional concern, the scale and generality of detrimental impacts have not been widely recognised. We review the direct and indirect impacts on ecosystems and evidence for interspecific effects on native deer. In New Zealand, where large herbivores were previously absent, severe and novel impacts have been found in susceptible forests. Even where ecosystems contain native deer, invasion by taxonomically exotic deer species carries the risk of cascade effects on spatial plant dynamics and forest composition. In Patagonia, introduced deer have disrupted forest composition, whereas in Europe, ecosystem impacts of introduced species can differ from those of over-abundant native deer. Introduced Chine...
The ecological impacts of increasing populations of deer (Cervidae) in Europe and North America a... more The ecological impacts of increasing populations of deer (Cervidae) in Europe and North America are becoming more widespread and pronounced. Within Britain, it has been suggested that declines in several woodland bird species, particularly those dependent on dense understorey vegetation, may be at least partly due to these effects. Here we present experimental evidence of the effects of deer browsing on the fine‐scale habitat selection and habitat use by a bird species in Europe. The study was conducted in a wood in eastern England where a decrease in Common Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos numbers has coincided with a large increase in deer numbers. Eight woodland plots were cut to produce young coppice regrowth (a favoured habitat for Nightingales). Deer were excluded from half of each plot using steel fences, thus creating eight experimental pairs of exclosures (unbrowsed) and controls (browsed). Radiotelemetry and territory mapping of male Nightingales showed strong selection o...
Page 1. ORIGINAL PAPER Mahmoud R. Hemami Æ Paul M. Dolman The disappearance of muntjac (Muntiacus... more Page 1. ORIGINAL PAPER Mahmoud R. Hemami Æ Paul M. Dolman The disappearance of muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) pellet groups in a pine forest of lowland England Received: 5 August ...
Species richness and species rarity have been identified as important criteria when selecting con... more Species richness and species rarity have been identified as important criteria when selecting conservation areas. Traditional approaches that choose sites based solely on local species richness often fail to protect those species most at risk. By assessing the representation of species across a network of sites, the protection of all species is more likely to be assured. A GIS approach based on the Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP) is compared to existing complementarity algorithms using data collected by the British Trust for Ornithology on the distribution of birds in Wales, UK. Despite a range of solutions depending on the algorithm used, the results presented here suggest that the overall pattern of species and the habitats with which they are associated remain largely unchanged. Community ordination is used to examine the species composition of sample units and to relate this to habitat composition. This shows that key marine, coastal and moorland sites are selected by most solutions while there is a greater degree of substitutability for sites that are predominantly woodland and farmland. The GIS-based MCLP approach is then extended by incorporating various priority weightings, considered in terms of conservation criteria relevant to birds in Wales.
... species occupancy data from local interviews is a cost-effective approach successfully ... Hi... more ... species occupancy data from local interviews is a cost-effective approach successfully ... Highwayspaved, double-lane unpaved, and dirt roads were incorporated from georeferenced ... v. 4 (McCune and Mefford, 1999) with significance assessed by 9999 Monte Carlo permutations ...
Effective conservation is often informed by focal species studies to identify beneficial land man... more Effective conservation is often informed by focal species studies to identify beneficial land management interventions. For nocturnal or cryptic species, quantifying habitat use across individually marked animals can allow unbiased assessment of intervention efficacy and identify other important habitats. Here, using a landscape‐scale experiment, we examine whether interventions intended to create nesting habitat for the largely nocturnal Eurasian Stone‐curlew Burhinus oedicnemus within semi‐natural grassland also provide foraging habitat. GPS loggers were fitted to five adult Stone‐curlews during the breeding season within an extensive area of semi‐natural grassland (3850 ha, hereafter ‘grassland’), surrounded by a mosaic of arable cropland (total study area 118 600 ha). The largely closed‐sward grassland was diversified by experimental ground‐disturbance plots (the intervention) prior to this study. We used the GPS fixes to identify 1881 foraging locations (510 during nesting and ...
Numerous deer species have been introduced beyond their native range into ecosystems around the w... more Numerous deer species have been introduced beyond their native range into ecosystems around the world. Their economic value leads to further accidental and deliberate releases and lack of control is contributing to range expansion in Australia, South America and Europe. Despite localised or regional concern, the scale and generality of detrimental impacts have not been widely recognised. We review the direct and indirect impacts on ecosystems and evidence for interspecific effects on native deer. In New Zealand, where large herbivores were previously absent, severe and novel impacts have been found in susceptible forests. Even where ecosystems contain native deer, invasion by taxonomically exotic deer species carries the risk of cascade effects on spatial plant dynamics and forest composition. In Patagonia, introduced deer have disrupted forest composition, whereas in Europe, ecosystem impacts of introduced species can differ from those of over-abundant native deer. Introduced Chine...
The ecological impacts of increasing populations of deer (Cervidae) in Europe and North America a... more The ecological impacts of increasing populations of deer (Cervidae) in Europe and North America are becoming more widespread and pronounced. Within Britain, it has been suggested that declines in several woodland bird species, particularly those dependent on dense understorey vegetation, may be at least partly due to these effects. Here we present experimental evidence of the effects of deer browsing on the fine‐scale habitat selection and habitat use by a bird species in Europe. The study was conducted in a wood in eastern England where a decrease in Common Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos numbers has coincided with a large increase in deer numbers. Eight woodland plots were cut to produce young coppice regrowth (a favoured habitat for Nightingales). Deer were excluded from half of each plot using steel fences, thus creating eight experimental pairs of exclosures (unbrowsed) and controls (browsed). Radiotelemetry and territory mapping of male Nightingales showed strong selection o...
Page 1. ORIGINAL PAPER Mahmoud R. Hemami Æ Paul M. Dolman The disappearance of muntjac (Muntiacus... more Page 1. ORIGINAL PAPER Mahmoud R. Hemami Æ Paul M. Dolman The disappearance of muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) pellet groups in a pine forest of lowland England Received: 5 August ...
Species richness and species rarity have been identified as important criteria when selecting con... more Species richness and species rarity have been identified as important criteria when selecting conservation areas. Traditional approaches that choose sites based solely on local species richness often fail to protect those species most at risk. By assessing the representation of species across a network of sites, the protection of all species is more likely to be assured. A GIS approach based on the Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP) is compared to existing complementarity algorithms using data collected by the British Trust for Ornithology on the distribution of birds in Wales, UK. Despite a range of solutions depending on the algorithm used, the results presented here suggest that the overall pattern of species and the habitats with which they are associated remain largely unchanged. Community ordination is used to examine the species composition of sample units and to relate this to habitat composition. This shows that key marine, coastal and moorland sites are selected by most solutions while there is a greater degree of substitutability for sites that are predominantly woodland and farmland. The GIS-based MCLP approach is then extended by incorporating various priority weightings, considered in terms of conservation criteria relevant to birds in Wales.
... species occupancy data from local interviews is a cost-effective approach successfully ... Hi... more ... species occupancy data from local interviews is a cost-effective approach successfully ... Highwayspaved, double-lane unpaved, and dirt roads were incorporated from georeferenced ... v. 4 (McCune and Mefford, 1999) with significance assessed by 9999 Monte Carlo permutations ...
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