A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations
Wet grassland wader populations in the United Kingdom have experienced severe declines over the last three decades. To help mitigate these declines, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has restored and managed lowland wet grassland nature reserves to benefit these and other species....
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Wiley
2021
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/16984/ http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/16984/1/Conservation%20Biology%20-%202021%20-%20Jellesmark%20-%20A%20counterfactual%20approach%20to%20measure%20the%20impact%20of%20wet%20grassland%20conservation%20on.pdf |
id |
ftiiasalaxendare:oai:pure.iiasa.ac.at:16984 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftiiasalaxendare:oai:pure.iiasa.ac.at:16984 2023-05-15T17:47:18+02:00 A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations Jellesmark, S. Ausden, M. Blackburn, T.M. Gregory, R.D. Hoffmann, M. Massimino, D. McRae, L. Visconti, P. 2021-01-07 text http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/16984/ http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/16984/1/Conservation%20Biology%20-%202021%20-%20Jellesmark%20-%20A%20counterfactual%20approach%20to%20measure%20the%20impact%20of%20wet%20grassland%20conservation%20on.pdf en eng Wiley http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/16984/1/Conservation%20Biology%20-%202021%20-%20Jellesmark%20-%20A%20counterfactual%20approach%20to%20measure%20the%20impact%20of%20wet%20grassland%20conservation%20on.pdf Jellesmark, S., Ausden, M., Blackburn, T.M., Gregory, R.D., Hoffmann, M., Massimino, D., McRae, L., & Visconti, P. <http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/view/iiasa/3114.html> (2021). A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations. Conservation Biology 35 (5) 1575-1585. 10.1111/cobi.13692 <https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13692>. cc_by_4 CC-BY Article PeerReviewed 2021 ftiiasalaxendare 2022-04-15T12:39:34Z Wet grassland wader populations in the United Kingdom have experienced severe declines over the last three decades. To help mitigate these declines, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has restored and managed lowland wet grassland nature reserves to benefit these and other species. However, the impact that these reserves have on bird population trends has not been experimentally evaluated, as appropriate control populations do not readily exist. In this study, we compare population trends from 1994 - 2018 for five bird species of conservation concern that breed on these nature reserves with counterfactual trends using matched breeding bird survey observations. Our results showed positive effects of conservation interventions for all four wader species that these reserves aim to benefit: Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), Redshank (Tringa totanus), Curlew (Numenius arquata) and Snipe (Gallinago gallinago). There was no positive effect of conservation interventions on reserves for the passerine, Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava). We compared reserve trends with three different counterfactuals, based on different scenarios of how reserve populations could have developed in the absence of conservation, and found that reserve trends performed better regardless of the counterfactual used. Our approach using monitoring data to produce valid counterfactual controls is a broadly applicable method allowing large-scale evaluation of conservation impact. Article impact statement: Post-hoc quasi-experimental analysis shows that wet grassland conservation has positively affected targeted breeding bird populations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Article in Journal/Newspaper Numenius arquata Vanellus vanellus IIASA DARE (Data Repository of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
IIASA DARE (Data Repository of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis) |
op_collection_id |
ftiiasalaxendare |
language |
English |
description |
Wet grassland wader populations in the United Kingdom have experienced severe declines over the last three decades. To help mitigate these declines, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has restored and managed lowland wet grassland nature reserves to benefit these and other species. However, the impact that these reserves have on bird population trends has not been experimentally evaluated, as appropriate control populations do not readily exist. In this study, we compare population trends from 1994 - 2018 for five bird species of conservation concern that breed on these nature reserves with counterfactual trends using matched breeding bird survey observations. Our results showed positive effects of conservation interventions for all four wader species that these reserves aim to benefit: Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), Redshank (Tringa totanus), Curlew (Numenius arquata) and Snipe (Gallinago gallinago). There was no positive effect of conservation interventions on reserves for the passerine, Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava). We compared reserve trends with three different counterfactuals, based on different scenarios of how reserve populations could have developed in the absence of conservation, and found that reserve trends performed better regardless of the counterfactual used. Our approach using monitoring data to produce valid counterfactual controls is a broadly applicable method allowing large-scale evaluation of conservation impact. Article impact statement: Post-hoc quasi-experimental analysis shows that wet grassland conservation has positively affected targeted breeding bird populations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jellesmark, S. Ausden, M. Blackburn, T.M. Gregory, R.D. Hoffmann, M. Massimino, D. McRae, L. Visconti, P. |
spellingShingle |
Jellesmark, S. Ausden, M. Blackburn, T.M. Gregory, R.D. Hoffmann, M. Massimino, D. McRae, L. Visconti, P. A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations |
author_facet |
Jellesmark, S. Ausden, M. Blackburn, T.M. Gregory, R.D. Hoffmann, M. Massimino, D. McRae, L. Visconti, P. |
author_sort |
Jellesmark, S. |
title |
A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations |
title_short |
A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations |
title_full |
A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations |
title_fullStr |
A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations |
title_full_unstemmed |
A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations |
title_sort |
counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on uk breeding bird populations |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/16984/ http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/16984/1/Conservation%20Biology%20-%202021%20-%20Jellesmark%20-%20A%20counterfactual%20approach%20to%20measure%20the%20impact%20of%20wet%20grassland%20conservation%20on.pdf |
genre |
Numenius arquata Vanellus vanellus |
genre_facet |
Numenius arquata Vanellus vanellus |
op_relation |
http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/16984/1/Conservation%20Biology%20-%202021%20-%20Jellesmark%20-%20A%20counterfactual%20approach%20to%20measure%20the%20impact%20of%20wet%20grassland%20conservation%20on.pdf Jellesmark, S., Ausden, M., Blackburn, T.M., Gregory, R.D., Hoffmann, M., Massimino, D., McRae, L., & Visconti, P. <http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/view/iiasa/3114.html> (2021). A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on UK breeding bird populations. Conservation Biology 35 (5) 1575-1585. 10.1111/cobi.13692 <https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13692>. |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766151679506382848 |