Distribution and individual condition reveal a hierarchy of habitat suitability for an area-sensitive passerine

Maron, Martine; Goulding, William; Ellis, Rebecca D.; Mohd-Taib, Farah Shafawati

doi:10.1007/s10531-012-0314-2

Cited by 24 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…It is difficult to generalize across taxa, but reptiles and amphibians in particular contain a greater proportion of less-vagile species than birds, large mammals and flying insects (Allentoft & O'Brien, 2010;Mac Nally & Brown, 2001;Rivera-Ortíz, Aguilar, Arizmendi, Quesada, & Oyama, 2015 (Maron, Goulding, Ellis, & Mohd-Taib, 2012).…”

Section: Geographic and Taxonomic Biasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of impediments to animal movements at different scales: A conceptual framework and review

Cosgrove

McWhorter

Maron

2017

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim: The persistence of animal populations depends on individuals moving successfully around a landscape, but habitat fragmentation can hinder this by reducing functional connectivity. The proximate cause of population declines in fragmented habitat is dependent on the spatial and temporal scales of movement restrictions. Location: Global.Methods: We present a conceptual framework highlighting the relationship between spatial and temporal scales, and three mechanisms through which detrimental impacts can occur when movement is disrupted in fragmented landscapes: limited resource access, restricted demographic exchange and impeded gene flow. We then review the literature to identify the proportion of studies conducted on each mechanism and whether biases existed in how often each was studied among different geographic zones or taxa. A random selection of 250 articles was classified by the mechanism, geographic region and taxon studied in each article.Results: Our conceptual framework highlighted that each of the three mechanisms tends to be characterized by movement restriction at progressively larger spatial and temporal scales. In our literature review, we found that the overwhelming majority (77%) of articles investigated impeded gene flow, and only 17% and 10% explored restricted demographic exchange and limited resource access, respectively. Work on limited resource access was disproportionately low for particular taxonomic groups, such as reptiles and amphibians.Main conclusions: Distinguishing which mechanisms are disrupted in a particular system is crucial because addressing each is likely to require a distinct conservation management response. We encourage greater focus on the less-studied mechanisms of restricted demographic exchange and limited resource access. K E Y W O R D Sdemographic rescue, food availability, genetic diversity, habitat fragmentation, habitat loss, literature review, matrix, spatial scale, structural connectivity

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Section: Geographic and Taxonomic Biasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of impediments to animal movements at different scales: A conceptual framework and review

Cosgrove

McWhorter

Maron

2017

Diversity and Distributions

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“…Third, Maron et al (2012) identified that robins had higher chronic stress levels in landscapes with less woodland cover, but occupancy patterns showed no relationship to woodland extent. They hypothesised that this pattern of condition was an early indicator that extirpations would soon become evident in less-wooded landscapes .…”

Section: Suitability Of Study Region and Speciesmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on patch occupancy can be markedly different from the effects observed on physiological condition (Janin et al 2011;Maron et al 2012). For example, patch occupancy by common toads (Bufo bufo) in France was best predicted by habitat extent, whereas GCs and body condition were strongly associated with both habitat extent and fragmentation (Janin et al 2011).…”

Section: Using Physiological Measures To Understand Mechanisms Causinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead of basing this investigation on total invertebrate density as is often done (Burke & Nol 1998;Zanette et al 2000), I only consider prey taxa known to be consumed by robins. Drawing inferences based on total invertebrate density may be misleading given that birds show preferences towards certain prey groups (Naef-Daenzer et al 2000;Hagar et al 2007;Moorman et al 2007;Razeng & Watson 2012 Maron et al (2012) and what these changes might mean for the population.…”

Section: Thesis Outlinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study region and species were chosen so that preliminary work conducted in the area by Maron et al (2012) could be extended. However, there were several reasons why this region and species were well suited to the current study.…”

Section: Suitability Of Study Region and Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why are woodland-dependent avian insectivore populations vulnerable to declines in highly-modified landscapes?

Cosgrove¹

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Habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation are the leading causes of faunal population declines.Substantial effort has been invested in identifying how these landscape changes are related to population parameters. However, to effectively mitigate declines, we must understand the underlying mechanisms impacted by landscape change. Woodland-dependent avian insectivores seem particularly vulnerable, and decline at rates disproportionately greater than other foraging guilds. This pattern suggests that reduced food availability in less-wooded landscapes may be a contributing factor. However, the evidence supporting this hypothesis is sparse. I adopted a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the mechanisms driving population changes of an avian insectivore in highly-modified landscapes by integrating physiological indices with measures of prey availability and landscape structure. First, I presented a framework for conceptualising how the spatiotemporal scale of fragmentation influences the mechanisms impacting populations. I then used the eastern yellow robin (Eopsaltria australis) in the Brigalow Belt South bioregion of southern Queensland to test the importance of local and landscape factors on robin site occupancy, prey density, and robin condition. I also investigated whether an index of chronic stress could be used to predict changes to robin occurrence and identify potential threats to the population. I concluded this work by conducting a supplementary feeding experiment to determine whether food availability was causing the variation in robin condition. A pilot study conducted in the study region four years earlier found that robins were more physiologically stressed (had higher heterophil:lymphocyte ratios) in sites with less woodland in the surrounding landscape, but site occupancy was unrelated to woodland cover. Re-examining the same study system, I established that woodland cover was now the strongest predictor of iii occupancy. While woodland cover at a local scale (within 500 m) was important for robin persistence, woodland cover at a broader scale relevant to dispersal movements (within 5 km) was not. While my stress index could not accurately predict the precise locations of future extirpations, patterns of stress indices (birds were more stressed where woodland cover was lower) did foreshadow a change to the pattern of occurrence. Extirpations from sites with low levels of woodland cover were balanced by colonisations of more-wooded sites. Surprisingly, I found that arthropod prey density was greater at sites that had less surrounding woodland. This result was primarily driven by a large number of Formicidae (ants). However, Formicidae have low nutritional value and once they were excluded from the results, soil moisture, not woodland cover, became the primary determinant of arthropod density. I predicted that robin condition would be strongly associated with arthropod density, but this was not the case. Instead, robins had elevated stress levels at sites with apparently more-favourable...

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Accessible ecophysiological tools for seabird conservation

Whitehead

Dunphy

2022

Aquatic Conservation

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1. Seabirds are the most endangered avian taxa on Earth, with over a third of species globally threatened. To help slow their decline, conservation physiology seeks to determine how seabird responses to climatic and anthropogenic threats influence demographic processes, but it is not widely utilized in monitoring.2. A wide variety of metrics and methods are available to the conservation practitioner; thus, the correct method selection is paramount. This is a review of physiological tools to assess both individual and population health in seabirds, outlining which tools could be accessible enough to incorporate into conservation management strategies to increase the efficacy and range of population monitoring.3. Ultimately, the cost and expertise required limits the use of some tools in a community-based management context, but they are useful in academic research in collaboration with conservation projects to generate data to inform management strategies for threatened species.4. The value of the data available from particular tools is weighed against the invasiveness of the methodology to assess the practicality of incorporating physiological tools into routine seabird monitoring programmes. 5. A broader application of conservation physiology tools in a monitoring context could help manage threatened species; this paper summarizes a set of physiological variables from minimally invasive samples that have potential to assist in monitoring population health for seabird conservation. The full potential of these physiological tools is yet to be realized in seabirds.

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Distribution and individual condition reveal a hierarchy of habitat suitability for an area-sensitive passerine

Cited by 24 publications

References 61 publications

Consequences of impediments to animal movements at different scales: A conceptual framework and review

Consequences of impediments to animal movements at different scales: A conceptual framework and review

Why are woodland-dependent avian insectivore populations vulnerable to declines in highly-modified landscapes?

Accessible ecophysiological tools for seabird conservation

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