Common European birds are declining rapidly while less abundant species' numbers are rising

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Biodiversity is undergoing unprecedented global decline. Efforts to slow this rate have focused foremost on rarer species, which are at most risk of extinction. Less interest has been paid to more common species, despite their greater importance in terms of ecosystem function and service provision. How rates of decline are partitioned between common and less abundant species remains unclear. Using a 30-year data set of 144 bird species, we examined Europe-wide trends in avian abundance and biomass. Overall, avian abundance and biomass are both declining with most of this decline being attributed to more common species, while less abundant species showed an overall increase in both abundance and biomass. If overall avian declines are mainly due to reductions in a small number of common species, conservation efforts targeted at rarer species must be better matched with efforts to increase overall bird numbers, if ecological impacts of birds are to be maintained.RSPBEuropean Commissio

On a Rare Visit to Texas

<p>Species' sensitivity scores are calculated as their niche breadth*reliance, with higher values indicating species less sensitive to changes in resource abundance or availability. Equivalent, PECBMS-only <i>BREAKPOINT</i> sets for the forest type and region indicators are presented in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0097217#pone.0097217.s014" target="_blank">Table S7</a>. ‘0/1’ identifies species that were interchangeable in any given breakpoint set due to equal sensitivity scores – see specific note for each indicator for further details.</p><p><i>*Species also included in current pan-European forest bird indicator (for full list see</i><a href="http://www.ebcc.info/index.php?ID=459" target="_blank">http://www.ebcc.info/index.php?ID=459</a>).</p>a<p>Either species could be included.</p>b<p>Any one of three could be included.</p>c<p>Any two of three could be included.</p

An assessment of relative habitat use as a metric for species' habitat association and degree of specialization

Corrigendum: Ecological Indicators, Volume 137, April 2022, Article number 108627, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.108627.In order to understand species' sensitivity to habitat change, we must correctly determine if a species is associated with a habitat or not, and if it is associated, its degree of specialization for that habitat. However, definitions of species' habitat association and specialization are often static, categorical classifications that coarsely define species as either habitat specialists or generalists and can fail to account for potential temporal or spatial differences in association or specialization. In contrast, quantitative metrics can provide a more nuanced assessment, defining species' habitat associations and specialization along a continuous scale and accommodate for temporal or spatial variation, but these approaches are less widely used. Here we explore relative habitat use (RHU) as a metric for quantifying species' association with and degree of specialization for different habitat types. RHU determines the extent of a species' association with a given habitat by comparing its abundance in that habitat relative to its mean abundance across all other habitats. Using monitoring data for breeding birds across Europe from 1998 to 2017; we calculate RHU scores for 246 species for five habitat types and compared them to the literature-based classifications of their association with and specialization for each of these habitats. We also explored the temporal variation in species' RHU scores for each habitat and assessed how this varied according to association and degree of specialization. In general, species' RHU and literature-derived classifications were well aligned, as RHU scores for a given habitat increased in line with reported association and specialization. In addition, temporal variation in RHU scores were influenced by association and degree of specialization, with lower scores for those associated with, and those more specialized to, a given habitat. As a continuous metric, RHU allows a detailed assessment of species' association with and degree of specialization for different habitats that can be tailored to specific temporal and/or spatial requirements. It has the potential to be a valuable tool for identifying indicator species and in supporting the design, implementation and monitoring of conservation management actions.Peer reviewe

A Niche-Based Framework to Assess Current Monitoring of European Forest Birds and Guide Indicator Species' Selection

Concern that European forest biodiversity is depleted and declining has provoked widespread efforts to improve management practices. To gauge the success of these actions, appropriate monitoring of forest ecosystems is paramount. Multi-species indicators are frequently used to assess the state of biodiversity and its response to implemented management, but generally applicable and objective methodologies for species' selection are lacking. Here we use a niche-based approach, underpinned by coarse quantification of species' resource use, to objectively select species for inclusion in a pan-European forest bird indicator. We identify both the minimum number of species required to deliver full resource coverage and the most sensitive species' combination, and explore the trade-off between two key characteristics, sensitivity and redundancy, associated with indicators comprising different numbers of species. We compare our indicator to an existing forest bird indicator selected on the basis of expert opinion and show it is more representative of the wider community. We also present alternative indicators for regional and forest type specific monitoring and show that species' choice can have a significant impact on the indicator and consequent projections about the state of the biodiversity it represents. Furthermore, by comparing indicator sets drawn from currently monitored species and the full forest bird community, we identify gaps in the coverage of the current monitoring scheme. We believe that adopting this niche-based framework for species' selection supports the objective development of multi-species indicators and that it has good potential to be extended to a range of habitats and taxa

Contrasting population trends of Common Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) across Europe

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Contrasting population trends of Common Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) across Europe

The greatest loss of biodiversity in the EU has occurred on agricultural land. The Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is one of the many numerous and widespread European farmland breeding bird species showing major population declines linked to European agricultural intensification. Here we present results based on monitoring data collected since 1975 in 24 countries to examine the influence of changing extent of grassland and cattle abundance (based on results of earlier studies showing the importance of lowland cattle grazed grassland for the species), wintering provenance and temperature on national breeding population trends of Starlings across Europe. Positive Starling population trends in Central-East Europe contrast with negative trends in North and West Europe. Based on this indicative approach, we found some support for the importance of cattle stock and no support for grassland, temperature or wintering provenance to explain Starling population trends in Europe. However, we acknowledge such a European-wide analysis may conceal regional differences in responses and suggest that currently accessible national land use datamight be insufficient to describe the detailed current changes in animal husbandry and grassland management that may be responsible for changes in food availability and hence breeding Starling abundance and their differences across Europe. Reviewing results from local studies relating Starling population trends to local agricultural change offer contradictory results, suggesting complex interacting processes at work. We recommend combining national datasets on demography, land-use/agricultural practices and from autecological research to better explain the reasons for contrasting Starling trends across Europe, to enable us to predict how changing agriculture will affect Starlings and potentially suggest mitigation measures to restore local populations where possible.Peer reviewe

A Preclinical Assessment of Neural Stem Cells as Delivery Vehicles for Anti-Amyloid Therapeutics

Transplantation of neural stems cells (NSCs) could be a useful means to deliver biologic therapeutics for late-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we conducted a small preclinical investigation of whether NSCs could be modified to express metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), a secreted protease reported to degrade aggregated Aβ peptides that are the major constituents of the senile plaques. Our findings illuminated three issues with using NSCs as delivery vehicles for this particular application. First, transplanted NSCs generally failed to migrate to amyloid plaques, instead tending to colonize white matter tracts. Second, the final destination of these cells was highly influenced by how they were delivered. We found that our injection methods led to cells largely distributing to white matter tracts, which are anisotropic conduits for fluids that facilitate rapid distribution within the CNS. Third, with regard to MMP9 as a therapeutic to remove senile plaques, we observed high concentrations of endogenous metalloproteinases around amyloid plaques in the mouse models used for these preclinical tests with no evidence that the NSC-delivered enzymes elevated these activities or had any impact. Interestingly, MMP9-expressing NSCs formed substantially larger grafts. Overall, we observed long-term survival of NSCs in the brains of mice with high amyloid burden. Therefore, we conclude that such cells may have potential in therapeutic applications in AD but improved targeting of these cells to disease-specific lesions may be required to enhance efficacy

The future distribution of wetland birds breeding in Europe validated against observed changes in distribution

Wetland bird species have been declining in population size worldwide as climate warming and land-use change affect their suitable habitats. We used species distribution models (SDMs) to predict changes in range dynamics for 64 non-passerine wetland birds breeding in Europe, including range size, position of centroid, and margins. We fitted the SDMs with data collected for the first European Breeding Bird Atlas and climate and land-use data to predict distributional changes over a century (the 1970s-2070s). The predicted annual changes were then compared to observed annual changes in range size and range centroid over a time period of 30 years using data from the second European Breeding Bird Atlas. Our models successfully predicted ca. 75% of the 64 bird species to contract their breeding range in the future, while the remaining species (mostly southerly breeding species) were predicted to expand their breeding ranges northward. The northern margins of southerly species and southern margins of northerly species, both, predicted to shift northward. Predicted changes in range size and shifts in range centroids were broadly positively associated with the observed changes, although some species deviated markedly from the predictions. The predicted average shift in core distributions was ca. 5 km yr(-1) towards the north (5% northeast, 45% north, and 40% northwest), compared to a slower observed average shift of ca. 3.9 km yr(-1). Predicted changes in range centroids were generally larger than observed changes, which suggests that bird distribution changes may lag behind environmental changes leading to 'climate debt'. We suggest that predictions of SDMs should be viewed as qualitative rather than quantitative outcomes, indicating that care should be taken concerning single species. Still, our results highlight the urgent need for management actions such as wetland creation and restoration to improve wetland birds' resilience to the expected environmental changes in the future

Pre-requisites for successful adoption of the ASP model by user organization

Application Service Providing (ASP) emerged towards the end of 90s with claims of extensive advantages for client organizations, in particular for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). Notwithstanding many perceived advantages the ASP approach has not gained wide acceptance as the new model for delivery of enterprise applications. Many of the early ASP providers have not been able to establish a viable business model and have discontinued ASP services, or went out of business altogether. However, some major ICT vendors have recently re-confirmed their commitment to the application-as-service model and made large investments in Utility Computing infrastructure. What are the long-term prospects for application servicing? Is Utility Computing a new paradigm for the delivery of enterprise applications, or is this yet another ICT industry fad? How should user organizations respond to these developments? This paper follows on from earlier work of the authors [Feuerlicht, Vorisek, 2002], [Feuerlicht, Vorisek, 2003], and gives a detailed description of the ASP approach. We then summarize both technological and business prerequisites for successful application servicing. We argue that the application-as-service model constitutes a viable alternative to software licensing for many application types today, and will become the dominant method for delivery of enterprise applications in not too distant future. End user organizations need to prepare now for this shift from licensed software and in-house implementation towards applications delivered as services, so that they are able to take full advantage of this new trend