| 1. |
- Dalby, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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The status of the Nordic populations of the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) in a changing world
- 2013
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Ingår i: Ornis Fennica. - : Finnish Omithological Soc. - 0030-5685. ; 90:1, s. 2-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dabbling ducks (Anas spp.) are importantmigratory quarry species, protected as a shared resource under international legislation. However, there is a lack of sufficient high-quality data on vital demographic rates and long-term trends in numbers to judge the conservation status of many duck populations at the flyway level. In response to reported declines in the North-West European flyway population of theMallard, we compiled available data on this species in the Nordic countries up to 2010. Generally, national breeding numbers showed increasing trends, wintering abundance showed variable trends, and productivitymeasures indicated stable or increasing trends.Major knowledge gaps were identified, namely the size of hunting bags, the influence of the released Mallards and the role of short-stopping in explaining changing patterns of wintering abundance across the North-West European flyway. Numerically the Nordic breeding population appears in “good condition”, and the wintering numbers have been either stable or increasing in the last two decades. The annual number of releases needs to be determined in order to judge the sustainability of the current levels of exploitation. Overall, none of the indicators showed alarming signs for the Mallard population in the Nordic countries when considered in isolation. However, the widespread decline in wintering numbers elsewhere across North-western Europe requires urgent pan-European action.
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| 2. |
- Holopainen, Sari, et al.
(författare)
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Sustainable management of migratory European ducks : finding model species
- 2018
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Ingår i: Wildlife Biology. - : Nordic Council for Wildlife Research (NKV). - 0909-6396 .- 1903-220X.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Eurasian migratory duck species represent a natural resource shared between European countries. As is evident throughout human harvest history, lack of coordinated management and monitoring at appropriate levels often leads to ‘the tragedy of the commons’, where shared populations suffer overexploitation. Effective management can also be hampered by poor understanding of the factors that limit and regulate migratory populations throughout their flyways, and over time. Following decades of population increase, some European duck populations now show signs of levelling off or even decline, underlining the need for more active and effective management. In Europe, the existing mechanisms for delivering effective management of duck populations are limited, despite the need and enthusiasm for establishing adaptive management (AM) schemes for wildlife populations. Existing international legal agreements already oblige European countries to sustainably manage migratory waterbirds. Although the lack of coordinated demographic and hunting data remains a challenge to sustainable management planning, AM provides a robust decision-making framework even in the presence of uncertainty regarding demographic and other information. In this paper we investigate the research and monitoring needs in Europe to successfully apply AM to ducks, and search for possible model species, focusing on freshwater species (in contrast to sea duck species) in the East Atlantic flyway. Based on current knowledge, we suggest that common teal Anas crecca, Eurasian wigeon Mareca penelope and common goldeneye Bucephala clangula represent the best species for testing the application of an AM modelling approach to duck populations in Europe. Applying AM to huntable species with relatively good population data as models for broader implementation represents a cost effect to develop AM on a European flyway scale for ducks, and potentially other waterbirds in the future.
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| 3. |
- Holopainen, Sari, et al.
(författare)
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Sustainable management of migratory European ducks : finding model species
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Eurasian migratory ducks are a natural resource shared between multiple European countries. Due to lack of flyway-level management and monitoring, there is a risk of “the tragedy of the commons” arising, where populations are overexploited. Effective management may also be hindered by a poor understanding of the factors that limit and regulate migratory populations throughout their flyways, and over time. Following decades of population increase, some European duck populations now show signs of levelling off or even decline, underlining the need for more active management. In Europe, we lack effective common tools to manage duck populations, despite the need and enthusiasm for establishing flyway-level adaptive management (AM) schemes for migratory birds. There are several international legal agreements (e.g. EEC Birds Directive, AEWA) that oblige European countries to sustainably manage migratory birds and their habitats. Although the lack of coordinated demographic and hunting data remains a challenge to sustainable management planning for waterfowl, AM provides a robust decision-making framework even in the presence of uncertainty.We investigate the research and monitoring needs in Europe to successfully apply AM to ducks, and search for possible model species, focusing on freshwater duck species. Our geographical focus is NW Europe (excluding Russia), the area utilized by ducks in the East-Atlantic flyway. Based on current knowledge and their wide distribution, we suggest that Common Teal Anas crecca, Eurasian Wigeon Mareca penelopeand Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangulawould be the best species for testing the application of an AM modelling approach for ducks in Europe. Applying AM to huntable species with relatively good population data as models for broader implementation represents a cost effective way of starting to develop AM on a European flyway scale for ducks and other harvested waterbirds.
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| 4. |
- Stafford, Joshua D., et al.
(författare)
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Spring migration of waterfowl in the northern hemisphere : a conservation perspective
- 2014
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Ingår i: Wildfowl. - 0954-6324 .- 2052-6458. ; :Special Issue 4, s. 70-85
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Spring migration is a key part of the annual cycle for waterfowl populations in the northern hemisphere, due to its temporal proximity to the breeding season and because resources may be limited at one or more staging sites. Research based on field observations during spring lags behind other periods of the year, despite the potential for fitness consequences through diminished survival or cross-seasonal effects of conditions experienced during migration. Consequently, conservation strategies for waterfowl on spring migration are often only refined versions of practices used during autumn and winter. Here we discuss the current state of knowledge of habitat requirements for waterfowl at their spring migratory sites and the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that lead to variability in those requirements. The provision of plant foods has become the main conservation strategy during spring because of the birds’ energy requirements at this time, not only to fuel migration but to facilitate early clutch formation on arrival at the breeding grounds. Although energy sources are important to migrants, there is little evidence on the extent to which the availability of carbohydrate-based food is limiting for many migratory waterfowl populations. Such limitation is relatively unlikely among populations that exploit agricultural grain during migration (e.g. arctic-nesting geese), suggesting that conservation strategies for these populations may be misplaced. In general, however, we found few cases in which an ecological understanding of spring-migrating waterfowl was sufficient to indicate true resource limitation during migration, and still fewer cases where conservation efforts ameliorated these limitations. We propose a framework that aims to address knowledge gaps and apply empirical research results to conservation strategies based on documented limitations and associated fitness impacts on migrating waterfowl. Such a strategy would improve allocation of scarce conservation resources during spring migration and greatly improve ecological understanding of migratory waterfowl and their habitats in the northern hemisphere.
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