Behaviour, home‐range size and habitat use by male Great Bittern <i>Botaurus stellaris</i> in Britain

Gilbert, Gillian; Tyler, Glen; Smith, Kristin

doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.2005.00424.x

Cited by 30 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…A suitable proportion of fish fry habitat (open water) and Eurasian Bittern breeding habitat (reedbeds) in a seminatural ecosystem seems optimal for the polygynous system of reproduction. Habitat use by the Eurasian Bittern population in this study was corroborated by studies carried out in the UK, which found that the male's home-range encompassed on average 30 % open water and 48 % reed edge (Gilbert et al 2005b). The lack of influence of other microhabitat parameters on nest clumping is due to stable nest preferences within a particular patch of emergent vegetation (Polak et al 2008).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Habitat quality and breeding parameters in relation to female mating status in the polygynous Eurasian Bittern Botaurus stellaris

Kasprzykowski

Polak

2012

J Ornithol

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The Eurasian Bittern Botaurus stellaris has a polygynous mating system where the nests of solitary and clumped females are located within a male territory. However, the factors that may favour the formation of nest clusters remain unknown. The focus was on the clustering effect in the Eurasian Bittern population on fishpond complexes in eastern Poland in order to test whether clumped nesting is dependent on habitat quality. Breeding parameters were also assessed in order to investigate the advantages accruing to females of nesting close together in clusters. During the breeding periods between 2003 and 2009, we found 144 active nests of the Eurasian Bittern: most of them (55.5 %) were in clusters of two to four nests. The mean distance between adjacent nests in a cluster was 23.5 m. The proportion of open water to emergent vegetation and the category of fish stock have significant effects on cluster nesting in the Eurasian Bittern. There were differences between single and clumped nests with respect to the first-egg laying date and male presence. The environmental and ecological factors that may determine the Eurasian Bittern female's nest-site choice are discussed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Habitat quality and breeding parameters in relation to female mating status in the polygynous Eurasian Bittern Botaurus stellaris

Kasprzykowski

Polak

2012

J Ornithol

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“…Water level management in reedbeds aims to maintain standing water in a proportion of the reedbed during the spring and summer to provide suitable foraging conditions for breeding Great Bitterns (Gilbert et al 2005(Gilbert et al , 2007, and to provide a range of successional stages from open water to dry reedbed and fen and scattered scrub for other wetland species (See Table 1). …”

Section: Aims Of Conservation Management and Wetland Management Actimentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of species-led conservation on ecosystem services of wetlands: understanding co-benefits and tradeoffs

et al. 2011

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Biodiversity conservation organisations have recently begun to consider a wider ecosystem services context for their activities. While the literature suggests the potential of 'win-win' situations where biodiversity conservation and the delivery of ecosystem services overlap, empirical evidence is wanting. Here we explore the role that species-led management for the benefit of biodiversity in cultural landscapes can play in the delivery of wider ecosystem services. We use UK lowland wetlands as a case study and show how successful delivery of species-led conservation through management interventions relies on practices that can affect greenhouse gas fluxes, water quality and regulation, and cultural benefits. In these wetlands, livestock grazing has potentially large effects on water and greenhouse gas related services, but there is little scope to alter management without compromising species objectives. Likewise, there is little potential to alter reedbed management without compromising conservation objectives. There is some potential to alter woodland and scrub management, but this would likely have limited influence due to the relatively small area over which such management is practiced. The management of water levels potentially has large effects on provision of several services and there does appear to be some scope to align this objective with biodiversity objectives.B. Fisher and R. B. Bradbury are contributed equally to this work.A comprehensive understanding of the net costs and benefits to society of these interventions will require fine-grained research integrating ecological, economic and social science research. However, a less analytic understanding of the potential costs and benefits can highlight ways by which land management principally to achieve biodiversity conservation objectives might be modified to enhance delivery of other ecosystem services.

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“…2009). At the same time, an intensive research programme has focused on understanding the detailed habitat requirements of Bittern (Gilbert et al. 2005a,b) and food availability at key sites (Gilbert et al.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Current dynamics and predicted vulnerability to sea‐level rise of a threatened Bittern Botaurus stellaris population

Gilbert

Brown

Wotton

2010

Ibis

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The decline of the Bittern Botaurus stellaris has long been symbolic of wetland habitat loss and fragmentation across western Europe. Wetland restoration and creation activity, targeted at Bittern, has been ongoing in the UK for more than 10 years and the overall numbers of occupied sites has increased five-fold in that time. The strong recovery, whilst cause for celebration, disguises the continued precariousness of the population. This recovery has predominantly been fuelled by chick productivity from three sites in coastal Suffolk and there is increasing awareness that these sites are in immediate danger from rising sea levels. A key question is whether any loss of these key sites to coastal flooding matters to the UK Bittern population. A cautious approach to mathematical modelling of the sensitivity of the UK Bittern population to sea-level rise events suggests that we should be concerned about the long-term future. Our models demonstrate the sensitivity of the UK population to changes in chick survival and suggest that the growth of the UK Bittern population would be negatively affected by the loss of even a proportion of nests from these three key sites. These findings prompt the need for a multi-layered conservation strategy to meet this dynamic challenge. A potential way forward is discussed.

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Behaviour, home‐range size and habitat use by male Great Bittern Botaurus stellaris in Britain

Cited by 30 publications

References 12 publications

Habitat quality and breeding parameters in relation to female mating status in the polygynous Eurasian Bittern Botaurus stellaris

Habitat quality and breeding parameters in relation to female mating status in the polygynous Eurasian Bittern Botaurus stellaris

Impacts of species-led conservation on ecosystem services of wetlands: understanding co-benefits and tradeoffs

Current dynamics and predicted vulnerability to sea‐level rise of a threatened Bittern Botaurus stellaris population

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