Grazed wet meadows are sink habitats for the southern dunlin (Calidris alpina schinzii) due to nest trampling by cattle

The effect of habitat management is commonly evaluated by measuring population growth, which does not distinguish changes in reproductive success from changes in survival or the effects of immigration or emigration. Management has rarely been evaluated considering complete life cycle of the target o...

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Published in:Ecology and Evolution
Main Authors: Pakanen, Veli‐Matti, Aikio, Sami, Luukkonen, Aappo, Koivula, Kari
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513266/
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2369
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spelling ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5513266 2023-05-15T15:48:15+02:00 Grazed wet meadows are sink habitats for the southern dunlin (Calidris alpina schinzii) due to nest trampling by cattle Pakanen, Veli‐Matti Aikio, Sami Luukkonen, Aappo Koivula, Kari 2016-09-09 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513266/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2369 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513266/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2369 © 2016 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY Original Research Text 2016 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2369 2017-07-23T00:11:58Z The effect of habitat management is commonly evaluated by measuring population growth, which does not distinguish changes in reproductive success from changes in survival or the effects of immigration or emigration. Management has rarely been evaluated considering complete life cycle of the target organisms, including also possible negative impacts from management. We evaluated the effectiveness of cattle grazing in the restoration of coastal meadows as a breeding habitat for small and medium‐sized ground‐nesting birds by examining the size and demography of a southern dunlin (Calidris alpina schinzii) breeding population. Using a stochastic renesting model that includes within‐season variation in breeding parameters, we evaluated the effect of grazing time and stocking rates on reproduction. The census data indicated that the population was stable when nest trampling was prevented, but detailed demographic models showed that the population on managed meadows was a sink that persisted by attracting immigrants. Even small reductions in reproductive success caused by trampling were detrimental to long‐term viability. We suggest that the best management strategy is to postpone grazing to after the 19th of June, which is about three weeks later than what is optimal from the farmer's point of view. The differing results from the two evaluation approaches warn against planning and evaluating management only based on census population size and highlight the need to consider target‐specific life history characteristics and demography. Even though grazing management is crucial for creating and maintaining suitable habitats, we found that it was insufficient in maintaining a viable population without additional measures that increase nest success. In the presently studied case and in populations with similar breeding cycles, impacts from nest trampling can be avoided by starting grazing when about 70% of the breeding season has past. Text Calidris alpina Dunlin PubMed Central (PMC) Ecology and Evolution 6 20 7176 7187
institution Open Polar
collection PubMed Central (PMC)
op_collection_id ftpubmed
language English
topic Original Research
spellingShingle Original Research
Pakanen, Veli‐Matti
Aikio, Sami
Luukkonen, Aappo
Koivula, Kari
Grazed wet meadows are sink habitats for the southern dunlin (Calidris alpina schinzii) due to nest trampling by cattle
topic_facet Original Research
description The effect of habitat management is commonly evaluated by measuring population growth, which does not distinguish changes in reproductive success from changes in survival or the effects of immigration or emigration. Management has rarely been evaluated considering complete life cycle of the target organisms, including also possible negative impacts from management. We evaluated the effectiveness of cattle grazing in the restoration of coastal meadows as a breeding habitat for small and medium‐sized ground‐nesting birds by examining the size and demography of a southern dunlin (Calidris alpina schinzii) breeding population. Using a stochastic renesting model that includes within‐season variation in breeding parameters, we evaluated the effect of grazing time and stocking rates on reproduction. The census data indicated that the population was stable when nest trampling was prevented, but detailed demographic models showed that the population on managed meadows was a sink that persisted by attracting immigrants. Even small reductions in reproductive success caused by trampling were detrimental to long‐term viability. We suggest that the best management strategy is to postpone grazing to after the 19th of June, which is about three weeks later than what is optimal from the farmer's point of view. The differing results from the two evaluation approaches warn against planning and evaluating management only based on census population size and highlight the need to consider target‐specific life history characteristics and demography. Even though grazing management is crucial for creating and maintaining suitable habitats, we found that it was insufficient in maintaining a viable population without additional measures that increase nest success. In the presently studied case and in populations with similar breeding cycles, impacts from nest trampling can be avoided by starting grazing when about 70% of the breeding season has past.
format Text
author Pakanen, Veli‐Matti
Aikio, Sami
Luukkonen, Aappo
Koivula, Kari
author_facet Pakanen, Veli‐Matti
Aikio, Sami
Luukkonen, Aappo
Koivula, Kari
author_sort Pakanen, Veli‐Matti
title Grazed wet meadows are sink habitats for the southern dunlin (Calidris alpina schinzii) due to nest trampling by cattle
title_short Grazed wet meadows are sink habitats for the southern dunlin (Calidris alpina schinzii) due to nest trampling by cattle
title_full Grazed wet meadows are sink habitats for the southern dunlin (Calidris alpina schinzii) due to nest trampling by cattle
title_fullStr Grazed wet meadows are sink habitats for the southern dunlin (Calidris alpina schinzii) due to nest trampling by cattle
title_full_unstemmed Grazed wet meadows are sink habitats for the southern dunlin (Calidris alpina schinzii) due to nest trampling by cattle
title_sort grazed wet meadows are sink habitats for the southern dunlin (calidris alpina schinzii) due to nest trampling by cattle
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
publishDate 2016
url http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513266/
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2369
genre Calidris alpina
Dunlin
genre_facet Calidris alpina
Dunlin
op_relation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513266/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2369
op_rights © 2016 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
op_rightsnorm CC-BY
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2369
container_title Ecology and Evolution
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container_issue 20
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