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- Quantifying annual spatial consistency in chick-rearing seabirds to inform important site identificationPublication . Beal, Martin; Catry, Paulo; Phillips, Richard A.; Oppel, Steffen; Arnould, John P.Y.; Bogdanova, Maria I.; Bolton, Mark; Carneiro, Ana P.B.; Clatterbuck, Corey; Conners, Melinda; Daunt, Francis; Delord, Karine; Elliott, Kyle; Fromant, Aymeric; Granadeiro, José P.; Green, Jonathan A.; Halsey, Lewis; Hamer, Keith C.; Ito, Motohiro; Jeavons, Ruth; Kim, Jeong-Hoon; Kokubun, Nobuo; Koyama, Shiho; Lane, Jude V.; Lee, Won Young; Matsumoto, Sakiko; Orben, Rachael; Owen, Ellie; Paiva, Vitor H.; Patterson, Allison; Pollock, Christopher J.; Ramos, Jaime A.; Sagar, Paul; Sato, Katsufumi; Shaffer, Scott A.; Soanes, Louise; Takahashi, Akinori; Thompson, David R.; Thorne, Lesley; Torres, Leigh; Watanuki, Yutaka; Waugh, Susan M.; Weimerskirch, Henri; Whelan, Shannon; Yoda, Ken; Xavier, José C.; Dias, Maria P.Animal tracking has afforded insights into patterns of space use in numerous species and thereby informed area-based conservation planning. A crucial consideration when estimating spatial distributions from tracking data is whether the sample of tracked animals is representative of the wider population. However, it may also be important to track animals in multiple years to capture changes in distribution in response to varying environmental conditions. Using GPS-tracking data from 23 seabird species, we assessed the importance of multi-year sampling for identifying important sites for conservation during the chick-rearing period, when seabirds are most spatially constrained. We found a high degree of spatial overlap among distributions from different years in most species. Multi-year sampling often captured a significantly higher portion of reference distributions (based on all data for a population) than sampling in a single year. However, we estimated that data from a single year would on average miss only 5 % less of the full distribution of a population compared to equal-sized samples collected across three years (min: −0.3 %, max: 17.7 %, n = 23). Our results suggest a key consideration for identifying important sites from tracking data is whether enough individuals were tracked to provide a representative estimate of the population distribution during the sampling period, rather than that tracking necessarily take place in multiple years. By providing an unprecedented multi-species perspective on annual spatial consistency, this work has relevance for the application of tracking data to informing the conservation of seabirds.
- Corrigendum to “Quantifying annual spatial consistency in chick-rearing seabirds to inform important site identification” [Biol. Conserv. 281 (2023) 109994]Publication . Beal, Martin; Catry, Paulo; Phillips, Richard A.; Oppel, Steffen; Arnould, John P.Y.; Bogdanova, Maria; Bolton, Mark; Carneiro, Ana P.B.; Clatterbuck, Corey; Conners, Melinda; Daunt, Francis; Delord, Karine; Elliott, Kyle; Fromant, Aymeric; Granadeiro, José P.; Green, Jonathan A.; Halsey, Lewis; Hamer, Keith C.; Ito, Motohiro; Jeavons, Ruth; Kim, Jeong-Hoon; Kokubun, Nobuo; Koyama, Shiho; Lane, Jude V; Lee, Won Young; Matsumoto, Sakiko; Orben, Rachael; Owen, Ellie; Paiva, Vitor H.; Patterson, Allison; Pollock, Christopher J.; Ramos, Jaime A.; Sagar, Paul; Sato, Katsufumi; Shaffer, Scott; Soanes, Louise; Takahashi, Akinori; Thompson, David; Thorne, Lesley; Torres, Leigh; Watanuki, Yutaka; Waugh, Susan M.; Weimerskirch, Henri; Whelan, Shannon; Yoda, Ken; Xavier, J. C.; Dias, Maria P.Animal tracking has afforded insights into patterns of space use in numerous species and thereby informed areabased conservation planning. A crucial consideration when estimating spatial distributions from tracking data is whether the sample of tracked animals is representative of the wider population. However, it may also be important to track animals in multiple years to capture changes in distribution in response to varying environmental conditions. Using GPS-tracking data from 23 seabird species, we assessed the importance of multi-year sampling for identifying important sites for conservation during the chick-rearing period, when seabirds are most spatially constrained. We found a high degree of spatial overlap among distributions from different years in most species. Multi-year sampling often captured a significantly higher portion of reference distributions (based on all data for a population) than sampling in a single year. However, we estimated that data from a single year would on average miss only 5 % less of the full distribution of a population compared to equal-sized samples collected across three years (min: − 0.3 %, max: 17.7 %, n = 23). Our results suggest a key consideration for identifying important sites from tracking data is whether enough individuals were tracked to provide a representative estimate of the population distribution during the sampling period, rather than that tracking necessarily take place in multiple years. By providing an unprecedented multi-species perspective on annual spatial consistency, this work has relevance for the application of tracking data to informing the conservation of seabirds.
- track2KBA: An R package for identifying important sites for biodiversity from tracking dataPublication . Beal, Martin; Oppel, Steffen; Handley, Jonathan; Pearmain, Elizabeth J.; Pujol, Virginia Morera; Carneiro, Ana P. B.; Davies, Tammy; Phillips, Richard A.; Taylor, Philip R.; Miller, Mark G. R.; Franco, Aldina; Catry, Inês; Patrício, Ana Rita; Regalla De Barros, Aissa; Staniland, Iain; Boyd, Charlotte; Catry, Paulo; Dias, Maria P.Abstract 1. Identifying important sites for biodiversity is vital for conservation and management. However, there is a lack of accessible, easily applied tools that enable practitioners to delineate important sites for highly mobile species using established criteria. 2. We introduce the R package ‘track2KBA’, a tool to identify important sites at the population level using tracking data from individual animals based on three key steps: (a) identifying individual core areas, (b) assessing population-level representativeness of the sample and (c) quantifying spatial overlap among individuals and scaling up to the population. 3. We describe package functionality and exemplify its application using tracking data from three taxa in contrasting environments: a seal, a marine turtle and a migratory land bird. 4. This tool facilitates the delineation of sites of ecological relevance for diverse taxa and provides output useful for assessing their importance to a population or species, as in the Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) Standard. As such, ‘track2KBA’ can contribute directly to conservation planning at global and regional levels.
- Connectivity between countries established by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flywayPublication . Guilherme, João L.; Jones, Victoria R.; Catry, Ines; Beal, Martin; Dias, Maria P.; Oppel, Steffen; Vickery, Juliet A.; Hewson, Chris; Butchart, Stuart; Rodrigues, AnaThe conservation of long-distance migratory birds requires coordination between the multiple countries connected by the movements of these species. The recent expansion of tracking studies is shedding new light on these movements, but much of this information is fragmented and inaccessible to conservation practitioners and policy makers. We synthesized current knowledge on the connectivity established between countries by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway. We reviewed tracking studies to compile migration records for 1229 individual birds, from which we derived 544 migratory links, each link corresponding to a species’ connection between a breeding country in Europe and a nonbreeding country in sub-Saharan Africa. We used these migratory links to analyze trends in knowledge over time and spatial patterns of connectivity per country (across species), per species (across countries), and at the flyway scale (across all countries and all species). The number of tracking studies available increased steadily since 2010 (particularly for landbirds), but the coverage of existing tracking data was highly incomplete. An average of 7.5% of migratory landbird species and 14.6% of raptor species were tracked per country. More data existed from central and western European countries, and it was biased toward larger bodied species. We provide species- and country-level syntheses of the migratory links we identified from the reviewed studies, involving 123 populations of 43 species, migrating between 28 European and 43 African countries. Several countries (e.g., Spain, Poland, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo) are strategic priorities for future tracking studies to complement existing data, particularly on landbirds. Despite the limitations in existing tracking data, our data and results can inform discussions under 2 key policy instruments at the flyway scale: the African–Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Action Plan and the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia.
- Connectivity between countries established by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flywayPublication . Guilherme, João L.; Jones, Victoria R.; Catry, Ines; Beal, Martin; Dias, Maria P.; Oppel, Steffen; Vickery, Juliet A.; Hewson, Chris M.; Butchart, Stuart; Rodrigues, Ana S. L.The conservation of long-distance migratory birds requires coordination between the multiple countries connected by the movements of these species. The recent expansion of tracking studies is shedding new light on these movements, but much of this information is fragmented and inaccessible to conservation practitioners and policy makers. We synthesized current knowledge on the connectivity established between countries by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway. We reviewed tracking studies to compile migration records for 1229 individual birds, from which we derived 544 migratory links, each link corresponding to a species’ connection between a breeding country in Europe and a nonbreeding country in sub-Saharan Africa. We used these migratory links to analyze trends in knowledge over time and spatial patterns of connectivity per country (across species), per species (across countries), and at the flyway scale (across all countries and all species). The number of tracking studies available increased steadily since 2010 (particularly for landbirds), but the coverage of existing tracking data was highly incomplete. An average of 7.5% of migratory landbird species and 14.6% of raptor species were tracked per country. More data existed from central and western European countries, and it was biased toward larger bodied species. We provide species- and country-level syntheses of the migratory links we identified from the reviewed studies, involving 123 populations of 43 species, migrating between 28 European and 43 African countries. Several countries (e.g., Spain, Poland, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo) are strategic priorities for future tracking studies to complement existing data, particularly on landbirds. Despite the limitations in existing tracking data, our data and results can inform discussions under 2 key policy instruments at the flyway scale: the African–Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Action
- A framework for mapping the distribution of seabirds by integrating tracking, demography and phenologyPublication . Carneiro, Ana Paula B.; Pearmain, Elizabeth J.; Oppel, Steffen; Clay, Thomas A.; Phillips, Richard A.; Bonnet‐Lebrun, Anne‐Sophie; Wanless, Ross M.; Abraham, Edward; Richard, Yvan; Rice, Joel; Handley, Jonathan; Davies, Tammy E.; Dilley, Ben J.; Ryan, Peter G.; Small, Cleo; Arata, Javier; Arnould, John P. Y.; Bell, Elizabeth; Bugoni, Leandro; Letizia, Campioni; Catry, Paulo; Cleeland, Jaimie; Deppe, Lorna; Elliott, Graeme; Freeman, Amanda; Gonzalez-Solis, Jacob; Granadeiro, José Pedro; Grémillet, David; Landers, Todd J.; Makhado, Azwianewi; Nel, Deon; Nicholls, David G.; Rexer‐Huber, Kalinka; Robertson, Christopher J. R.; Sagar, Paul M.; Scofield, Paul; Stahl, Jean‐Claude; Stanworth, Andrew; Stevens, Kim L.; Trathan, Philip N.; Thompson, David R.; Torres, Leigh; Walker, Kath; Waugh, Susan M.; Weimerskirch, Henri; Dias, Maria P.1. The identification of geographic areas where the densities of animals are highest across their annual cycles is a crucial step in conservation planning. In marine environments, however, it can be particularly difficult to map the distribution of species, and the methods used are usually biased towards adults, neglecting the distribution of other life-history stages even though they can represent a substantial proportion of the total population. 2. Here we develop a methodological framework for estimating populationlevel density distributions of seabirds, integrating tracking data across the main life-history stages (adult breeders and non-breeders, juveniles and immatures). We incorporate demographic information (adult and juvenile/immature survival, breeding frequency and success, age at first breeding) and phenological data (average timing of breeding and migration) to weight distribution maps according to the proportion of the population represented by each life-history stage. 3. We demonstrate the utility of this framework by applying it to 22 species of albatrosses and petrels that are of conservation concern due to interactions with fisheries. Because juveniles, immatures and non-breeding adults account for 47%–81% of all individuals of the populations analysed, ignoring the distributions of birds in these stages leads to biased estimates of overlap with threats, and may misdirect management and conservation efforts. Population-level distribution maps using only adult distributions underestimated exposure to longline fishing effort by 18%–42%, compared with overlap scores based on data from all lifehistory stages. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our framework synthesizes and improves on previous approaches to estimate seabird densities at sea, is applicable for data-poor situations, and provides a standard and repeatable method that can be easily updated as new tracking and demographic data become available. We provide scripts in the R language and a Shiny app to facilitate future applications of our approach. We recommend that where sufficient tracking data are available, this framework be used to assess overlap of seabirds with at-sea threats such as overharvesting, fisheries bycatch, shipping, offshore industry and pollutants. Based on such an analysis, conservation interventions could be directed towards areas where they have the greatest impact on populations.
- Connectivity between countries established by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flywayPublication . Guilherme, João L.; Catry, Ines; Beal, Martin; Dias, Maria P.; Oppel, Steffen; Vickery, Juliet A.; Hewson, Chris; Butchart, Stuart; Rodrigues, Ana SofiaThe conservation of long-distance migratory birds requires coordination between the multiple countries connected by the movements of these species. The recent expansion of tracking studies is shedding new light on these movements, but much of this information is fragmented and inaccessible to conservation practitioners and policy makers. We synthesized current knowledge on the connectivity established between countries by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway. We reviewed tracking studies to compile migration records for 1229 individual birds, from which we derived 544 migratory links, each link corresponding to a species’ connection between a breeding country in Europe and a nonbreeding country in sub-Saharan Africa. We used these migratory links to analyze trends in knowledge over time and spatial patterns of connectivity per country (across species), per species (across countries), and at the flyway scale (across all countries and all species). The number of tracking studies available increased steadily since 2010 (particularly for landbirds), but the coverage of existing tracking data was highly incomplete. An average of 7.5% of migratory landbird species and 14.6% of raptor species were tracked per country. More data existed from central and western European countries, and it was biased toward larger bodied species. We provide species- and country-level syntheses of the migratory links we identified from the reviewed studies, involving 123 populations of 43 species, migrating between 28 European and 43 African countries. Several countries (e.g., Spain, Poland, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo) are strategic priorities for future tracking studies to complement existing data, particularly on landbirds. Despite the limitations in existing tracking data, our data and results can inform discussions under 2 key policy instruments at the flyway scale: the African–Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Action Plan and the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia
- Connectivity between countries established by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flywayPublication . Guilherme, João L.; Jones, Victoria R.; Catry, Ines; Beal, Martin; Dias, Maria P.; Oppel, Steffen; Vickery, Juliet A.; Hewson, Chris; Butchart, Stuart H. M.; Rodrigues, AnaThe conservation of long-distance migratory birds requires coordination between the multiple countries connected by the movements of these species. The recent expansion of tracking studies is shedding new light on these movements, but much of this information is fragmented and inaccessible to conservation practitioners and policy makers. We synthesized current knowledge on the connectivity established between countries by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway. We reviewed tracking studies to compile migration records for 1229 individual birds, from which we derived 544 migratory links, each link corresponding to a species’ connection between a breeding country in Europe and a nonbreeding country in sub-Saharan Africa. We used these migratory links to analyze trends in knowledge over time and spatial patterns of connectivity per country (across species), per species (across countries), and at the flyway scale (across all countries and all species). The number of tracking studies available increased steadily since 2010 (particularly for landbirds), but the coverage of existing tracking data was highly incomplete. An average of 7.5% of migratory landbird species and 14.6% of raptor species were tracked per country. More data existed from central and western European countries, and it was biased toward larger bodied species. We provide species- and country-level syntheses of the migratory links we identified from the reviewed studies, involving 123 populations of 43 species, migrating between 28 European and 43 African countries. Several countries (e.g., Spain, Poland, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo) are strategic priorities for future tracking studies to complement existing data, particularly on landbirds. Despite the limitations in existing tracking data, our data and results can inform discussions under 2 key policy instruments at the flyway scale: the African–Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Action Plan and the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia.
- Connectivity between countries established by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flywayPublication . Guilherme, João L.; Jones, Victoria R.; Catry, Inês; Beal, Martin; Dias, Maria P.; Oppel, Steffen; Vickery, Juliet A.; Hewson, Chris; Butchart, Stuart; Rodrigues, Ana S. L.The conservation of long-distance migratory birds requires coordination between the mul-tiple countries connected by the movements of these species. The recent expansion oftracking studies is shedding new light on these movements, but much of this informationis fragmented and inaccessible to conservation practitioners and policy makers. We synthe-sized current knowledge on the connectivity established between countries by landbirdsand raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway. We reviewed tracking studies tocompile migration records for 1229 individual birds, from which we derived 544 migra-tory links, each link corresponding to a species’ connection between a breeding country inEurope and a nonbreeding country in sub-Saharan Africa. We used these migratory linksto analyze trends in knowledge over time and spatial patterns of connectivity per country(across species), per species (across countries), and at the flyway scale (across all countriesand all species). The number of tracking studies available increased steadily since 2010 (par-ticularly for landbirds), but the coverage of existing tracking data was highly incomplete.An average of 7.5% of migratory landbird species and 14.6% of raptor species were trackedper country. More data existed from central and western European countries, and it wasbiased toward larger bodied species. We provide species- and country-level syntheses of themigratory links we identified from the reviewed studies, involving 123 populations of 43species, migrating between 28 European and 43 African countries. Several countries (e.g.,Spain, Poland, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo) are strategic priorities for futuretracking studies to complement existing data, particularly on landbirds. Despite the limi-tations in existing tracking data, our data and results can inform discussions under 2 keypolicy instruments at the flyway scale: the African–Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Action Plan and the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds ofPrey in Africa and Eurasia.
- Connectivity between countries established by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flywayPublication . Guilherme, João L.; Jones, Victoria R.; Catry, Inês; Beal, Martin; Dias, Maria P.; Oppel, Steffen; Vickery, Juliet A.; Hewson, Chris; Butchart, Stuart; Rodrigues, AnaThe conservation of long-distance migratory birds requires coordination between the multiple countries connected by the movements of these species. The recent expansion of tracking studies is shedding new light on these movements, but much of this information is fragmented and inaccessible to conservation practitioners and policy makers.We synthesized current knowledge on the connectivity established between countries by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway. We reviewed tracking studies to compile migration records for 1229 individual birds, from which we derived 544 migratory links, each link corresponding to a species’ connection between a breeding country in Europe and a nonbreeding country in sub-Saharan Africa. We used these migratory links to analyze trends in knowledge over time and spatial patterns of connectivity per country (across species), per species (across countries), and at the flyway scale (across all countries and all species). The number of tracking studies available increased steadily since 2010 (particularly for landbirds), but the coverage of existing tracking data was highly incomplete. An average of 7.5% of migratory landbird species and 14.6% of raptor species were tracked per country. More data existed from central and western European countries, and it was biased toward larger bodied species.We provide species- and country-level syntheses of the migratory links we identified from the reviewed studies, involving 123 populations of 43 species, migrating between 28 European and 43 African countries. Several countries (e.g., Spain, Poland, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo) are strategic priorities for future tracking studies to complement existing data, particularly on landbirds. Despite the limitations in existing tracking data, our data and results can inform discussions under 2 key policy instruments at the flyway scale: the African–Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Action Plan and the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia.