GEDAi and Vultures!

Dr A. Santangeli from the GEDA comments on a new study about the consequences of the decline of vultures in India and its cost in terms of human lifes and monetary damages. Here   

Bernard Castelein/NPL/Minden Pictures

"To calculate monetary damages, the team relied on previous research that calculated the economic value of what Indian society is willing to spend to save one life at roughly $665,000 a person. That put the total economic damages from the loss of vulture populations at $69.4 billion a year from 2000 to 2005.

The numbers themselves aren’t surprising, says Andrea Santangeli, a conservation scientist at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies who wasn’t involved with the research. He and others have sounded the alarm on biodiversity loss for decades. But the new, dramatic stats could help convince lawmakers to act, he says. “If you give them flashy figures, it’s probably easier to push forward policy and conservation measures." by Vivian La (Science News 15/07/2024)

 

Copernicus for conservation!

Dr. A. Santangeli explains the advantage in using Copernicus' products of land cover to investigate the effect of protectected areas on animal niches. here.

New Publication on mortality of migratory birds!

Serratosa, J., Oppel, S., Rotichs, S, Santangeli, A., [...] , Jones, V. R. 2024 Tracking data highlight the importance of human-induced mortality for large migratory birds at a flyway scale. Biological Conservation 293, 110525

In a shell: Despite stable frequencies of human-induced mortality over the past 15 years in the African-Eurasian flyway, conservation efforts targeting energy infrastructure and other human activities are necessary to mitigate these threats and safeguard bird species.

Abstract: Human-induced direct mortality affects huge numbers of birds each year, threatening hundreds of species worldwide. Tracking technologies can be an important tool to investigate temporal and spatial patterns of bird mortality as well as their drivers. We compiled 1704 mortality records from tracking studies across the African-Eurasian flyway for 45 species, including raptors, storks, and cranes, covering the period from 2003 to 2021. Our results show a higher frequency of human-induced causes of mortality than natural causes across taxonomic groups, geographical areas, and age classes. Moreover, we found that the frequency of human-induced mortality remained stable over the study period. From the human-induced mortality events with a known cause (n = 637), three main causes were identified: electrocution (40.5 %), illegal killing (21.7 %), and poisoning (16.3 %). 

Additionally, combined energy infrastructure-related mortality (i.e., electrocution, power line collision, and wind-farm collision) represented 49 % of all human-induced mortality events. Using a random forest model, the main predictors of human-induced mortality were found to be taxonomic group, geographic location (latitude and longitude), and human footprint index value at the location of mortality. Despite conservation efforts, human drivers of bird mortality in the African-Eurasian flyway do not appear to have declined over the last 15 years for the studied group of species. Results suggest that stronger conservation actions to address these threats across the flyway can reduce their impacts on species. In particular, projected future development of energy infrastructure is a representative example where application of planning, operation, and mitigation measures can enhance bird conservation.

 

 

Protected areas on the news!

Dr. A. Santangeli explains here why protected areas are insufficient to reduce the current biodiversity loss. They should be larger, better connected but efforts should be made outside the areas with a more sustainable agricultures and practices. 

The interview is framed by the scientific work of Dr. Santangeli and his colleagues (here).

New publication on bird conservation and aesthetic!

Santangeli, A., Haukka, A., Morris, W. et al. What drives our aesthetic attraction to birds?. npj biodivers 2, 20 (2023).

In a shell: Understanding our relationship with other species is crucial. This study reveals that people are most aesthetically attracted to smaller birds with vivid colors and extreme ornaments. Unveiling the visual features underpinning our aesthetic attraction to birds is a critical step towards optimizing conservation

Abstract: In the Anthropocene, the era when the imprint of humans on nature is pervasive across the planet, it is of utmost importance to understand human relationships with other species. The aesthetics of nature, and of species, is one of the values that plays a role in shaping human-nature relationships. 

Birds are ubiquitous across the world. The beauty of birds exerts a powerful tug on human emotions, and bird-rich areas attract scores of eco-tourists. People naturally find some birds more beautiful or interesting than others, but we currently lack a global understanding of the specifics of what makes a species aesthetically attractive. Here, we used a global citizen-science database on bird attractiveness covering nearly all extant bird species, to show that there are specific visual features that drive our aesthetic appeal for some bird species over others. First, our aesthetic attraction is highest for smaller birds with specific, vivid colors (e.g., blue and red, and departing from brown-grey) and extreme ornaments (a long crest or tail). Second, our aesthetic attraction is highest for species with broad ranges, possibly because such species may be more familiar to us. The features that make us attracted to a particular bird strongly align with broad human visual aesthetic preferences in modern society. Unveiling the visual features underpinning our aesthetic attraction to birds is a critical step towards optimizing conservation (e.g., via conservation marketing) and education campaigns, and leverage the cultural ecosystem service potential of birds.

 

 

New publication on the effect of protected areas!

Santangeli, A., Weigel, B., Antão, L.H. et al. Mixed effects of a national protected area network on terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity. Nat Commun 14, 5426 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41073-4

In a shell: Only a small fraction of species benefits of protected areas and it is not linked to species traits or conservation status. This indicates that additional measures like expanding coverage, enhancing connectivity, and better management are essential to address the broader biodiversity crisis effectively.

Abstract: Protected areas are considered fundamental to counter biodiversity loss. However, evidence for their effectiveness in averting local extinctions remains scarce and taxonomically biased. We employ a robust counterfactual multi-taxon approach to compare occupancy patterns of 638 species, including birds (150), mammals (23), plants (39) and phytoplankton (426) between protected and unprotected sites across four decades in Finland. We find mixed impacts of protected areas, with only a small proportion of species explicitly benefiting from protection—mainly through slower rates of decline inside protected areas. The benefits of protection are enhanced for larger protected areas and are traceable to when the sites were protected, but are mostly unrelated to species conservation status or traits (size, climatic niche and threat status). Our results suggest that the current protected area network can partly contribute to slow down declines in occupancy rates, but alone will not suffice to halt the biodiversity crisis. Efforts aimed at improving coverage, connectivity and management will be key to enhance the effectiveness of protected areas towards bending the curve of biodiversity loss.

Seabirds on the news!

Photo: Victor Paris

 J.-M. Igual wrote an overview of what we know about seabirds, what has been done and about the actions that should be undertaken for their conservation. He resumes in few lines his thirty-year experience working with these amazing birds. Read the full text (in spanish) here

 

 

New Publication on Red Kite conservation!

Sergio, F, Tavecchia, G., Blas, J., Taferna, A., Hiraldo, F.  2021. Demographic modeling to fine‐tune conservation targets: importance of pre‐adults for the decline of an endangered raptor. Ecological Applications, https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2266

Summary: Large, long‐lived species with slow life histories and protracted pre‐breeding stages are particularly susceptible to declines and extinction, often for unknown causes. Here, we show how demographic modeling of a medium‐sized raptor, the Red Kite Milvus milvus, can aid to refocus conservation research and attention on the most likely mechanisms driving its decline. Red Kites’ survival and reproduction increased through three sequential stages for 1–2, 3–6, and 7–30 yr of age, mainly corresponding to individuals that are dispersing, attempting to gain a territory, and breeding. As typical of long‐lived species, elasticities were highest for adult (≥7 yr old) survival, but this was high, with little scope for improvement. Instead, the declines were driven by an extremely low survival of pre‐adults in their first years of life, which weakened the whole demographic system by nullifying the offspring contribution of adults and curtailing their replacement by recruits. For example, 27 pairs were necessary to generate a single prime age adult. Simulation of management scenarios suggested that the decline could be halted most parsimoniously by increasing pre‐adult survival to the mean levels recorded for other areas, while only the synergistic, simultaneous improvement of breeding success, adult and pre‐adult survival could generate a recovery. We propose three actions to attain such goals through selective supplementary feeding of both breeding and non‐breeding individuals, and through mortality improvement by GPS remote‐sensing devices employed as surveillance monitoring tools. Our results show how improving demographic models by using real, local vital rates rather than “best guess” vital rates can dramatically improve model realism by refocusing attention on the actual stages and mortality causes in need of manipulation, thus building precious time and resources for conservation management. These results also highlight the frequent key role of pre‐adult survival for the management of long‐lived species, coherent with the idea of demographic systems as integrated chains only as strong as their weakest link.

 

 

 

Ring-necked parakeet in Sevilla!

On the wildlife journal Quercus  this month A. Luna published an interesting article  on the Ring-necked parakeet in Sevilla (Spain) and the potential conflict that invasive species can generate.

Special Issue "Conservation Optimism"

The article by Badia-Boher, Sanz -Aguilar, A. et al. has been selected for the interesting virtual Special Issue on  "Conservation Optimism" edited by E. J. Milner-Gulland.

Benidorm beaches and Storm Petrel!

The Benidorm City Council has prepared panels to inform people what to do when they recover Storm Petrels stranded on city's beaches attracted by the artificial lights. A good initiative promoted by Ana Sanz-Aguilar and the long-term project of Storm Petrel at Benidrom Island.
More here.

New Publication on Petrels and Shearwaters: where are we and where to go

Rodriguez, A, [...] Sanz-Aguilar, A. et al. 2019. Future Directions in Conservation Research on Petrels and Shearwaters. Frontiers in Marine Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00094

Abstract: Shearwaters and petrels (hereafter petrels) are highly adapted seabirds that occur across all the world’s oceans. Petrels are a threatened seabird group comprising 124 species. They have bet-hedging life histories typified by extended chick rearing periods, low fecundity, high adult survival, strong philopatry, monogamy and long-term mate fidelity and are thus vulnerable to change.

Photo: Victor Paris

Anthropogenic alterations on land and at sea have led to a poor conservation status of many petrels with 52 (42%) threatened species based on IUCN criteria and 65 (52%) suffering population declines. Some species are well-studied, even being used as bioindicators of ocean health, yet for others there are major knowledge gaps regarding their breeding grounds, migratory areas or other key aspects of their biology and ecology. 

We assembled 38 petrel conservation researchers to summarize information regarding the most important threats according to the IUCN Red List of threatened species to identify knowledge gaps that must be filled to improve conservation and management of petrels. We highlight research advances on the main threats for petrels (invasive species at breeding grounds, bycatch, overfishing, light pollution, climate change, and pollution). We propose an ambitious goal to reverse at least some of these six main threats, through active efforts such as restoring island habitats (e.g., invasive species removal, control and prevention), improving policies and regulations at global and regional levels, and engaging local communities in conservation efforts. 


Press release (in Spanish): here and here

New Publication on Plover survival in Mallorca

Garcia, P. J. and Tavecchia, G., 2018 Apparent survival and long-term population growth rate of the Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus in Mallorca, Balearic Archipelago, Spain. Ardeola 65. 2-2. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13157/arla.65.1.2018.sc2

This was a collaboration between the GEDA and the GOB aiming to estimate the survival probability of Kentish Plovers in Mallroca using data from 1977. The main question was whether there was a trend in survival probability in the last twenty years.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charadrius_alexandrinus_0711.jpg

Abstract: During the last few decades, many breeding waders have been declining worldwide, probably due to the reduction of suitable coastal habitats. Diagnosis of population parameters has become increasingly important for the conservation of waders.
 We used capture-recapture information of 214 adult Kentish Plovers Charadrius alexandrinus, marked between 1977 and 2015 at two breeding areas in Mallorca, Spain, to assess any possible temporal trend in the survival probability. Mean adult survival probability was 0.756 ± 0.05 with no differences between the two areas. The sparseness of the data did not permit robust estimates of yearly survival. However, models with a temporal trend in survival probability were not retained. An age-structured population model including demographic stochasticity suggested a stable population (l = 1.024 ± 0.09). Perturbation analyses indicated that a 10% increase in mean breeding success (from 0.44 to 0.63), by reducing habitat loss or nest predation, would be sufficient to obtain positive population trajectories.