Benefits of protected areas for nonbreeding waterbirds adjusting their distributions under climate warming

Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions and community composition. Many species have a so-called climatic debt, that is, shifts in range lag behind shifts in temperature isoclines. Inside protected areas (PAs), community changes in response to climate warming can be facilitated by greater colonization rates by warm-dwelling species, but also mitigated by lowering extirpation rates of cold-dwelling species. An evaluation of the relative importance of colonization-extirpation processes is important to inform conservation strategies that aim for both climate debt reduction and species conservation. We assessed the colonization-extirpation dynamics involved in community changes in response to climate inside and outside PAs. To do so, we used 25 years of occurrence data of nonbreeding waterbirds in the western Palearctic (97 species, 7071 sites, 39 countries, 1993-2017). We used a community temperature index (CTI) framework based on species thermal affinities to investigate species turnover induced by temperature increase. We determined whether thermal community adjustment was associated with colonization by warm-dwelling species or extirpation of cold-dwelling species by modeling change in standard deviation of the CTI (CTISD). Using linear mixed-effects models, we investigated whether communities in PAs had lower climatic debt and different patterns of community change than communities outside PAs. For CTI and CTISD combined, communities inside PAs had more species, higher colonization, lower extirpation, and lower climatic debt (16%) than communities outside PAs. Thus, our results suggest that PAs facilitate 2 independent processes that shape community dynamics and maintain biodiversity. The community adjustment was, however, not sufficiently fast to keep pace with the large temperature increases in the central and northeastern western Palearctic. Our results underline the potential of combining CTI and CTISD metrics to improve understanding of the colonization-extirpation patterns driven by climate warming

Recent changes in the abundance of Common Pochard Aythya ferina breeding in Europe

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Aeroecology meets aviation safety: Early warning Systems in Europe and the Middle East to prevent collisions between birds and aircraft

The aerosphere is utilized by billions of birds, moving for different reasons and from short to great distances spanning tens of thousands of kilometres. The aerosphere, however, is also utilized by aviation creating increasing conflicts in and around airfields as well as en-route. Collisions between birds and aircraft cost billions of euros annually and, in some cases, result in the loss of human lives. Simultaneously, aviation has diverse negative impacts on wildlife. During avian migration, due to the sheer numbers of birds in the air, the risk of bird strikes becomes particularly acute especially for military aviation. Over the last few decades, air forces across Europe and the Middle East have been developing solutions that integrate ecological research and aviation policy to reduce mutual negative interactions between birds and aircraft. The aims of this study are (1) to provide a brief overview of the systems currently used in aviation to monitor bird migration movements in the aerosphere, (2) to estimate their impact and effectiveness in bird strike avoidance, and (3) to show the integral role of operational weather radar networks. We compare systems in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Israel, areas that are crossed twice a year by huge fluxes of Palearctic migrants. We focus mainly on en-route conflicts and migration forecast systems. In addition, we describe how civil aviation can benefit from these military developments. We conclude by showing the roles of operational weather radar networks, forecast models and international and interdisciplinary collaboration to create safer skies for aviation and birds

Latitudinal-related variation in wintering population trends of greylag geese (Anser Anser) along the Atlantic flyway: A response to Climate Change?[Dataset]

The high quality of available census data for wintering greylag geese in Europe facilitates the study of how population change varies across the Atlantic flyway and relates to global change. Files contain information of greylag geese winter counts, mean January temperatures and surface areas of the main crops used by wintering geese (1980-2009), and of the first arrival of greylag geese in autumn to the Guadalquivir marshes (1961-2012).-- et al.Peer reviewe