Using citizen science data for a species recovery project for house martins in Swiss communities

House martins are in decline in many western European countries. The reasons for the decline are poorly understood, but as a species placing their nest on the outside of buildings, the house martin strongly depends on human tolerance. Beside the general decrease in insect abundance, important causes for the decline thus are the disappearance of nests due to renovation or demolition of buildings, the diminishing acceptance of homeowners and inhabitants for house martin nests on buildings and a lack of loamy bare ground that offers nest building material where the birds are still welcome. As part of a long term species recovery project for the house martin, the Swiss Ornithological Institute started a web based citizen science project in 2013 to collect information on exact addresses of house martin colonies for conservation purposes throughout Switzerland. The data from this platform and from another large citizen science platform ornitho.ch were used to create an inventory of known locations with house martin nests. To enforce species conservation, each Swiss community harbouring house martin nests receives the inventory together with 2 new fact sheets: One is directed at home owners and inhabitants of buildings with nests and contains information about the breeding ecological of the species, the legal basis against removing nests and how to plan renovation work. The second is directed to the local governments and shows the possible conservation actions to be realized at the community level. The data of the inventory is available in a GIS-format and can thus easily be adopted by local authorities, ecologists, architects and developers during building development.peerReviewe

Référence naturelle pédologique pour la revitalisation des rivières, le cas de la Singine (FR)

Présentation des sols et de la végétation d'une zone alluviale d'importance nationale (Singine, FR)

Birth weight and perinatal mortality:A comparison of "optimal" birth weight in seven western European countries

Background:Previous studies have suggested that a population's entire birth weight distribution may be shifted towards higher or lower birth weights, and that optimal birth weight may be lower in populations with a lower average birth weight. We evaluated this hypothesis for seven western European countries. Methods:We obtained data on all singleton births (N = 1,372,092) and extended perinatal deaths (stillbirths plus neonatal deaths; N = 7,900) occurring in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, the Netherlands, and Flanders (Belgium) in 1993-1995. We assessed whether countries differed in the mode of their birth weight distribution and in the birth weight associated with the lowest perinatal mortality, and then correlated the two. Results:Substantial international differences were found in the mode of the birth weight distribution, which ranged between 3384 gm in Flanders and 3628 gm in Finland. The position of the minimum of the perinatal mortality curve also differed considerably, ranging between 3755 gm in Flanders and 4305 gm in Norway. There was a strong relation between the two: for every 100 gm increase in modal birth weight, optimal birth weight was 170 gm higher (95% confidence interval = 104-236 gm). Conclusions:Our results confirm those of previous studies that compared two populations. To improve the identification of small babies at high risk of perinatal death, population-specific standards for birth weight should be developed and used.</p

Differences in perinatal mortality and suboptimal care between 10 European regions:Results of an international audit

Objective: A European concerted action (the EuroNatal study) investigated the background of differences in perinatal mortality between countries of Europe. The study aimed to determine the contribution of differences in quality of care, by looking at differences in the presence of suboptimal factors in individual cases of perinatal death. Design: Retrospective audit study. Setting: Regions of 10 European countries. Population: 1619 cases of perinatal death. Methods: Perinatal deaths between 1993 and 1998 in regions of 10 European countries were identified. Reviewed were singleton fetal deaths (28 or more weeks of gestational age), intrapartum deaths (28 or more weeks) and neonatal deaths (34 or more weeks). Deaths with (major) congenital anomalies were excluded. Cases were blinded for region and an international audit panel reviewed them using explicit audit criteria. Main outcome measures: Presence of suboptimal factors. Results: The audit covered 1619 cases of perinatal death, representing 90% of eligible cases in the regions. Consensus was reached on 1543 (95%) cases. In 715 (46%) of these cases, suboptimal factors, which possibly or probably had contributed to the fatal outcome, were identified. The percentage of cases with such suboptimal care factors was significantly lower in the Finnish and Swedish regions compared with the remaining regions of Spain, the Netherlands, Scotland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Greece and England. Failure to detect severe IUGR (10% of all cases) and smoking in combination with severe IUGR and/or placental abruption (12%) was the most frequent suboptimal factor. There was a positive association between the proportion of cases with suboptimal factors and the overall perinatal mortality rate in the regions. Conclusions: The findings of this international audit suggest that differences exist between the regions of the 10 European countries in the quality of antenatal, intrapartum and neonatal care, and that these differences contribute to the explanation of differences in perinatal mortality between these countries. The background to these differences in quality of care needs further investigation.</p