The continuing lack of ornithological research capacity in almost all of West Africa

Cresswell, Will

doi:10.2989/00306525.2017.1388301

Cited by 21 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In the case of Polish versus Dutch godwits, for example, the ways in which social information is transmitted among individuals may be different between the high-density Dutch population and the low-density Polish population, and this may lead to different levels of canalization of migratory routines (see Loonstra et al 2019c for a more extensive discussion). The fact that migratory routines are likely not based simply on broad ecological differences supports recent calls to study the full annual cycle of different species, and stresses the need to combine the nonbreeding and migration ecology of a given species with its population dynamics to better understand the observed differences among species, and in this way effectively inform conservation measures (Marra et al 2015;Rushing et al 2017;Cresswell 2018).…”

Section: Population Variation In Space Usementioning

confidence: 97%

Migration route, stopping sites, and non-breeding destinations of adult Black-tailed Godwits breeding in southwest Fryslân, The Netherlands

et al. 2020

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In this paper, we extend our understanding of the migration of Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa limosa) by describing: (1) the orientation and geographic locations of individual migratory routes and (2) the spatial distribution of godwits across seasons and years. We accomplish this using satellite-tracking data from 36 adult godwits breeding in the 200-ha Haanmeer polder in The Netherlands, from 2015 to 2018. During both southward and northward migration, godwits used a narrow migratory corridor along which most individuals made stops within a network of sites, especially the Bay of Biscay, France and Doñana, Spain. Most sites were used consistently by the same individuals across years. However, sites in Morocco were used during northward migration by 75% of individuals, but not revisited by the same individual across years. After southward migration, a small proportion (15%) of godwits spent the entire non-breeding period north of the Sahara, but most (85%) crossed the Sahara and spent at least part of the non-breeding season among seven coastal sites in West Africa and one site in the Inner Niger Delta. Although site-use patterns varied among individuals, individuals showed high site fidelity and were consistent in the number of sites they used from year to year. The considerable differences in the spatial distribution of individuals that breed within a kilometre of one another raise questions about the causes and consequences of individual migratory differences. We discuss that full annual cycle tracking of juveniles from birth to adulthood is needed to understand the source of these individual differences. Our results on the spatial distribution of godwits throughout their annual cycle lay an important foundation of information that can be used to help conserve this declining species.

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Section: Population Variation In Space Usementioning

confidence: 97%

Migration route, stopping sites, and non-breeding destinations of adult Black-tailed Godwits breeding in southwest Fryslân, The Netherlands

et al. 2020

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“…This article was criticised by some who pointed out that South Africa's top ornithologists were not represented in the review as they publish in adhoc high impact factor journals. 8 In his response, Beale 9 raises concern regarding 'scientific colonialism' and the lack of on-the-ground support for local researchers -sentiments echoed by Cresswell 10 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Publication incentives based on journal rankings disadvantage local publications

Lee¹,

Simon²

2018

S. Afr. J. Sci.

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“…Clearly, we need further research into how biodiversity is maintained, and how migrants survive, on agricultural land (e.g. land‐sharing solutions) in tropical areas and particularly Africa, where even local baseline biodiversity monitoring is lacking (Cresswell, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local human population increase in the non‐breeding areas of long‐distance migrant bird species is only weakly associated with their declines, even for synanthropic species

Cresswell

Kazeh²,

Patchett

2019

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim To show how recent declines in populations of long‐distance migrant birds are associated with recent increases in human population growth and agricultural intensification on their tropical non‐breeding grounds, except for synanthropic species, where we expect the reverse. Location Breeding populations throughout Europe and North America spending the non‐breeding season throughout Africa, and Central and South America, respectively. Methods We mapped 50 species of long‐distance migrant birds from published tagging studies of 126 breeding populations and identified their breeding population trends from 2000 to 2015 from published Country or State census data. We then matched individual bird non‐breeding locations, from each population, to local human population change and crop yield data. We used GLMs to predict whether bird population decline was associated with human population change or crop yield and whether this was dependent on if a species was synanthropic or not, controlling for absolute human population density, breeding and non‐breeding location, migratory distance and phylogeny. We predicted that bird populations that spend the non‐breeding season in areas of recent higher human population increase or agricultural intensification (crop yield) would show greater declines, but that declines would be less for species that frequently utilize anthropogenic habitats such as secondary woodland and farmland. Results Bird population change, even for synanthropic species, showed a significant negative relationship with relative human population change and crop yield (but this was weak, <2% and 6% of variance respectively), and this relationship was the same for the Neotropics and Africa, despite African human population change being three times larger. Main conclusions The results suggest that local human population change in the non‐breeding area is likely to be only a relatively minor driver of migrant declines, and its effects may be through increases in agricultural intensification reducing carrying capacity, but we currently lack local studies to confirm this.

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The continuing lack of ornithological research capacity in almost all of West Africa

Cited by 21 publications

References 25 publications

Migration route, stopping sites, and non-breeding destinations of adult Black-tailed Godwits breeding in southwest Fryslân, The Netherlands

Migration route, stopping sites, and non-breeding destinations of adult Black-tailed Godwits breeding in southwest Fryslân, The Netherlands

Publication incentives based on journal rankings disadvantage local publications

Local human population increase in the non‐breeding areas of long‐distance migrant bird species is only weakly associated with their declines, even for synanthropic species

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