Population change in breeding boreal waterbirds in a 25‐year perspective: what characterises winners and losers? 2019 (English)In: Freshwater Biology, ISSN 0046-5070, E-ISSN 1365-2427, Vol. 65, no 2, p. 167-177Article in journal (Refereed) Published

Abstract [en]

1. Understanding drivers of variation and trends in biodiversity change is a general scientific challenge, but also crucial for conservation and management. Previous research shows that patterns of increase and decrease are not always consistent at different spatial scales, calling for approaches combining the latter. We here explore the idea that functional traits of species may help explaining divergent population trends.
2. Complementing a previous community level study, we here analyse data about breeding waterbirds on 58 wetlands in boreal Fennoscandia, covering gradients in latitude as well as trophic status. We used linear mixed models to address how change in local abundance over 25 years in 25 waterbird species are associated with life history traits, diet, distribution, breeding phenology, and habitat affinity.
3. Mean abundance increased in 10 species from 1990/1991 to 2016, whereas it decreased in 15 species. Local population increases were associated with species that are early breeders and have small clutches, an affinity for luxurious wetlands, an herbivorous diet, and a wide breeding range rather than a southern distribution. Local decreases, by contrast, were associated with species having large clutches and invertivorous diet, as well as being late breeders and less confined to luxurious wetlands. The three species occurring on the highest number of wetlands all decreased in mean abundance.
4. The fact that early breeders have done better than late fits well with previous research about adaptability to climate change, that is, response to earlier springs. We found only limited support for the idea that life history traits are good predictors of wetland level population change. Instead, diet turned out to be a strong candidate for an important driver of population change, as supported by a general decrease of invertivores and a concomitant increase of large herbivores.
5. In a wider perspective, future research needs to address whether population growth of large‐bodied aquatic herbivores affects abundance of co‐occurring invertivorous species, and if so, if this is due to habitat alteration, or to interference or exploitative competition.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages

2019. Vol. 65, no 2, p. 167-177

National Category

Biological Sciences

Identifiers

URN: urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-20051DOI: 10.1111/fwb.13411ISI: 000505921100001OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hkr-20051DiVA, id: diva2:1361389

Available from: 2019-10-16 Created: 2019-10-16 Last updated: 2020-01-24Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Search in DiVA

By author/editor

Elmberg, JohanGunnarsson, Gunnar

By organisation

Research environment Man & Biosphere Health (MABH)Avdelningen för miljö- och biovetenskap

In the same journal

Freshwater Biology

On the subject

Biological Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle ScholarTotal: 334 hits