Linking raptors and biodiversity

• Main Author: Burgas, Daniel
• Other Authors: Sutherland, William J., University of Helsinki, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Department of Biosciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Helsingin yliopisto, bio- ja ympäristötieteellinen tiedekunta, biotieteiden laitos, Helsingfors universitet, bio- och miljövetenskapliga fakulteten, biovetenskapliga institutionen, Byholm, Patrik
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Helsingin yliopisto 2014
• Subjects: ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Accipiter gentilis; Northern Goshawk; Strix uralensis; Ural Owl
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/136122

Under the current biodiversity crisis, there is the need to improve the conservation action. More areas need to be protected to curb biodiversity loss. Also, the methods for selection of both protected areas and management practices have to be well-informed in order to maximise the benefits from the limited resources allocated for conservation. However, because of limited information, decision making procedures are forced to use environmental variables and different species as surrogates of general biodiversity. Moreover, there is a bias towards charismatic and better known species like top predators. It is therefore important to forecast the consequences that favouring certain species might have on other organisms and to evaluate the effectiveness of preserving a subset of species. In this thesis I use empirical data to investigate how avian predators (the Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis and the Ural Owl Strix uralensis) associate to biodiversity. The focus is two-fold; First, I investigate the role of species interactions in dictating biodiversity patterns. I show that interactions within the predator assembly can have stronger effect on prey distribution (the Siberian Flying Squirrel Pteromys volans) than landscape attributes. This finding points out that individuals may be able to respond to changes in the structure of the predator assemblage. Additionally, I examine the impact of the Goshawk altering the structure of the forest bird community. I found that not only the raptor conditioned species distribution across space, but that this effect persisted over the years after the Goshawk abandoned the breeding site. Second, I evaluate the potential use of raptors as surrogates to indicate areas of relevant conservation value. On the one hand, I address how the two focal raptor species associate to different biodiversity metrics for birds and polypores (i.e. wood decaying fungi) over a landscape gradient. I found that, while both predator species indicated high biodiversity levels as compared to reference ...