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- Josefsson, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Improving scientific rigour in conservation evaluations and a plea deal for transparency on potential biases
- 2020
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Ingår i: Conservation Letters. - : Wiley. - 1755-263X. ; 13:5
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The delivery of rigorous and unbiased evidence on the effects of interventions lay at the heart of the scientific method. Here we examine scientific papers evaluating agri-environment schemes, the principal instrument to mitigate farmland biodiversity declines worldwide. Despite previous warnings about rudimentary study designs in this field, we found that the majority of studies published between 2008 and 2017 still lack robust study designs to strictly evaluate intervention effects. Potential sources of bias that arise from the correlative nature are rarely mentioned, and results are still promoted by using a causal language. This lack of robust study designs likely results from poor integration of research and policy, while the erroneous use of causal language and an unwillingness to discuss bias may stem from publication pressures. We conclude that scientific reporting and discussion of study limitations in intervention research must improve and propose some practices toward this goal.
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| 2. |
- Kotowska, Dorota, et al.
(författare)
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The use of socio-economy in species distribution modelling: Features of rural societies improve predictions of barn owl occurrence
- 2020
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 741
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Variation of habitats and resources important for farmland birds seems to be only partly captured by ordinary statistics on land-use and agricultural production. For instance, densities of rodents being prey for owls and raptors or structures of rural architecture providing nesting sites for many species are central for bird diversity but are not reported in any official statistics. Thus, modelling species distributions, population abundance and trends of farmland birds may miss important predictive habitat elements. Here, we involve local socio-economy factors as a source of additional information on rural habitat to test whether it improves predictions of barn owl occurrence in 2768 churches across Poland. Barn owls occurred in 778 churches and seemed to prefer old churches made of brick located in regions with a milder climate, higher share of arable land and pastures, low road density and low levels of light pollution. Including data on local unemployment, the proportion of elder citizens, commune income per citizen, the share of citizens with high education and share of farmers among working population improved the model substantially and some of these variables predicted barn owl occurrence better than several land-use and climate data. Barn owls were more likely to occur in areas with high unemployment, a higher proportion of older citizens in a local population and higher share of farmers among working population. Importantly, the socio-economy variables were correlated with the barn owl occurrence despite all climatic, infrastructure and land-use data were present in the model. We conclude that the socio-economy of local socie-ties may add important but overlooked information that links to spatial variation in farmland biodiversity. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 3. |
- Rosin, Zuzanna, et al.
(författare)
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Reduced biodiversity in modernized villages: A conflict between sustainable development goals
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0021-8901 .- 1365-2664. ; 57, s. 467-475
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite large conservation efforts to halt the loss of farmland biodiversity in Europe, negative population trends are still observed, especially for common species. Old villages and human settlements are biodiversity hotspots and important breeding habitats for farmland birds, but recent requirements for energy saving measures and improved living comfort have changed their architecture and habitats. Consequently, modernization of villages may negatively affect bird diversity due to the loss of nesting and foraging sites. We investigated how the abundance and diversity of birds breeding in 104 Polish villages varied in relation to the degree of modernization as estimated by the proportion of new and renovated homesteads. Abundance of building-nesting species, but not tree-nesting species, declined by 50% across a gradient of old to highly modernized villages. The contribution of new versus renovated houses to the observed decline was similar. Synthesis and applications. Rural modernization may have a dramatic effect on abundance of birds nesting on buildings, thus may be an important and overlooked contributor to farmland bird population declines in Europe. Villages and rural properties fall outside of current conservation policy as they are neither protected areas nor agricultural lands (where agri-environmental schemes can be applied). The observed conflict between sustainability goals such as increased building energy efficiency and biodiversity conservation suggests that sustainable rural development should better link modernization with conservation measures, for example, by constructing nesting sites when renovating and building new houses. The challenge is to design modern buildings that are both energy-efficient and biodiversity-friendly to generally improve quality of life for rural communities and to halt or reduce farmland bird declines in rural landscapes. Designers and architects can find inspiration from traditional architecture and add a variety of nest-box types.
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