The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages.
Conflict between stakeholders with opposing interests can hamper biodiversity conservation. When conflicts become entrenched, evidence from applied ecology can reveal new ways forward for their management. In particular, where disagreement exists over the efficacy or ethics of management actions, re...
Published in: | Ecology and Evolution |
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John Wiley
2019
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Online Access: | http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29195/ http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29195/1/29195.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5613 |
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ftunivdurham:oai:dro.dur.ac.uk.OAI2:29195 2023-05-15T16:08:31+02:00 The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages. Littlewood, Nick A. Mason, Tom H.E. Hughes, Martin Jacques, Rob Whittingham, Mark J. Willis, Stephen G. 2019-09-26 application/pdf http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29195/ http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29195/1/29195.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5613 unknown John Wiley dro:29195 issn:2045-7758 doi:10.1002/ece3.5613 http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29195/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5613 http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29195/1/29195.pdf This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. CC-BY Ecology and evolution, 2019 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Article PeerReviewed 2019 ftunivdurham https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5613 2020-06-04T22:25:53Z Conflict between stakeholders with opposing interests can hamper biodiversity conservation. When conflicts become entrenched, evidence from applied ecology can reveal new ways forward for their management. In particular, where disagreement exists over the efficacy or ethics of management actions, research clarifying the uncertain impacts of management on wildlife can move debates forwards to conciliation. Here, we explore a case‐study of entrenched conflict where uncertainty exists over the impacts of multiple management actions: namely, moorlands managed for the shooting of red grouse (willow ptarmigan) Lagopus lagopus in the United Kingdom (UK). Debate over how UK moorlands should be managed is increasingly polarized. We evaluate, for the first time at a regional scale, the relative impacts of two major moorland management practices—predator control and heather burning—on nontarget bird species of conservation concern. Birds were surveyed on 18 estates across Northern England and Southeast Scotland. Sites ranged from intensively managed grouse moors to moorland sites with no management for grouse shooting. We hypothesised that both targeted predator control and burning regimes would enhance ground‐nesting wader numbers and, as a consequence of this, and of increased grouse numbers, nontarget avian predators should also be more abundant on heavily managed sites. There were positive associations between predator control and the abundance of the three most widespread species of ground‐nesting wader: strong effects for European golden plover Pluvialis apricaria and Eurasian curlew Numenius arquata and, less strongly, for common snipe Gallinago gallinago. These effects saturated at low levels of predator control. Evidence for effects of burning was much weaker. We found no evidence of enhanced numbers of nontarget predators on heavily managed sites. Article in Journal/Newspaper Eurasian Curlew European Golden Plover Numenius arquata Pluvialis apricaria Durham University: Durham Research Online Ecology and Evolution 9 19 11089 11101 |
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Open Polar |
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Durham University: Durham Research Online |
op_collection_id |
ftunivdurham |
language |
unknown |
description |
Conflict between stakeholders with opposing interests can hamper biodiversity conservation. When conflicts become entrenched, evidence from applied ecology can reveal new ways forward for their management. In particular, where disagreement exists over the efficacy or ethics of management actions, research clarifying the uncertain impacts of management on wildlife can move debates forwards to conciliation. Here, we explore a case‐study of entrenched conflict where uncertainty exists over the impacts of multiple management actions: namely, moorlands managed for the shooting of red grouse (willow ptarmigan) Lagopus lagopus in the United Kingdom (UK). Debate over how UK moorlands should be managed is increasingly polarized. We evaluate, for the first time at a regional scale, the relative impacts of two major moorland management practices—predator control and heather burning—on nontarget bird species of conservation concern. Birds were surveyed on 18 estates across Northern England and Southeast Scotland. Sites ranged from intensively managed grouse moors to moorland sites with no management for grouse shooting. We hypothesised that both targeted predator control and burning regimes would enhance ground‐nesting wader numbers and, as a consequence of this, and of increased grouse numbers, nontarget avian predators should also be more abundant on heavily managed sites. There were positive associations between predator control and the abundance of the three most widespread species of ground‐nesting wader: strong effects for European golden plover Pluvialis apricaria and Eurasian curlew Numenius arquata and, less strongly, for common snipe Gallinago gallinago. These effects saturated at low levels of predator control. Evidence for effects of burning was much weaker. We found no evidence of enhanced numbers of nontarget predators on heavily managed sites. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Littlewood, Nick A. Mason, Tom H.E. Hughes, Martin Jacques, Rob Whittingham, Mark J. Willis, Stephen G. |
spellingShingle |
Littlewood, Nick A. Mason, Tom H.E. Hughes, Martin Jacques, Rob Whittingham, Mark J. Willis, Stephen G. The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages. |
author_facet |
Littlewood, Nick A. Mason, Tom H.E. Hughes, Martin Jacques, Rob Whittingham, Mark J. Willis, Stephen G. |
author_sort |
Littlewood, Nick A. |
title |
The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages. |
title_short |
The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages. |
title_full |
The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages. |
title_fullStr |
The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages. |
title_full_unstemmed |
The influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages. |
title_sort |
influence of different aspects of grouse moorland management on nontarget bird assemblages. |
publisher |
John Wiley |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29195/ http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29195/1/29195.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5613 |
genre |
Eurasian Curlew European Golden Plover Numenius arquata Pluvialis apricaria |
genre_facet |
Eurasian Curlew European Golden Plover Numenius arquata Pluvialis apricaria |
op_source |
Ecology and evolution, 2019 [Peer Reviewed Journal] |
op_relation |
dro:29195 issn:2045-7758 doi:10.1002/ece3.5613 http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29195/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5613 http://dro.dur.ac.uk/29195/1/29195.pdf |
op_rights |
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5613 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
19 |
container_start_page |
11089 |
op_container_end_page |
11101 |
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1766404570406191104 |