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Animals
Special Issues
Impact of Environmental Change on Bird Populations and Communities
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Impact of Environmental Change on Bird Populations and Communities

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Birds".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 12291

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Andrew W. Bartlow

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
Interests: avian community ecology; ecological health; environmental change; infectious disease ecology; one health; species interactions; species turnover

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change, anthropogenic mortality, and land-use change, such as habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation, are all causing drastic changes to bird populations around the world. It is estimated that there has been a net loss of 3 billion individual birds compared with the abundance in the 1970s. To counter adverse conditions, species must rapidly adapt to new environmental conditions or shift their geographic ranges to match their preferred climate regimes or habitat preferences. If a species can neither adapt nor shift its distribution because of geographic constraints, it may be vulnerable to population declines and potential local extinction. One significant knowledge gap is in understanding the traits that allow certain species to persist and/or adapt to changing conditions, and those that predispose certain species to distribution shifts. This information will help identify species that are at risk for local extinction, as well as how and where conservation efforts should be focused. As populations decline and distributions shift, new species interactions are created resulting in changes to, for example, host–pathogen interactions, predation pressures, and competition. Consequences of bird decline include loss of ecosystem services (e.g., seed dispersal and pollination), as well as changes to human disease risk. This Special Issue aims to understand how environmental change is impacting bird populations and communities globally, and to understand the consequences of these changes. We invite original articles and reviews regarding, but not limited to, range shifts, genetic effects, changes in phenology, timing of migration, novel predation pressures, and altered host–parasite interactions and human disease risk. Studies are not limited to geographic location or bird species.

Dr. Andrew W. Bartlow
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • biodiversity
  • climate change
  • disease risk
  • habitat change
  • host-pathogen interactions
  • global change
  • phenology
  • predation
  • range shifts
  • species declines
  • species turnover

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 1118 KiB  
Article
Does Age, Residency, or Feeding Guild Coupled with a Drought Index Predict Avian Health during Fall Migration?
by Jenna E. Stanek, Brent E. Thompson, Sarah E. Milligan, Keegan A. Tranquillo, Stephen M. Fettig and Charles D. Hathcock
Animals 2022, 12(4), 454; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12040454 - 12 Feb 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2644
Abstract
Birds are good indicators of environmental change and are often studied for responses to climate. Many studies focus on breeding birds, while fewer look at the migration period, which is a critical time for many birds. Birds are more susceptible to unusual climatic [...] Read more.
Birds are good indicators of environmental change and are often studied for responses to climate. Many studies focus on breeding birds, while fewer look at the migration period, which is a critical time for many birds. Birds are more susceptible to unusual climatic events during their migration due to the metabolic stress of long-distance movements. In the fall of 2020, an unusual cold weather event coupled with drought and wildfire smoke led to a large avian mortality event in New Mexico. Later analysis pointed to the mortality being largely due to starvation. This was the impetus for our research. We used 11 years of fall bird banding data from two locations, along with local drought indices, to determine what predicts avian health during the migration period. We used fat score data from over 15,000 individual birds to assess whether drought indices, age, diet, or residency influenced avian health using multiple logistic regression. We found that the probability of positive fat scores decreased as drought severity increased for younger, insectivorous, migratory birds. Insectivores had a higher probability of receiving a fat score greater than zero relative to local drought conditions, which is important, since many North American insectivores are in steep decline. Migratory birds showed a greater response than year-round residents, and older birds showed a lower but significant response compared to hatch-year birds. Our results suggest that migratory insectivores in the southwestern United States may be less resilient to drought-related climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Environmental Change on Bird Populations and Communities)
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15 pages, 1741 KiB  
Article
Response of Long-Tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) to the Change in the Main Prey Availability in Its Baltic Wintering Ground
by Paola Forni, Julius Morkūnas and Darius Daunys
Animals 2022, 12(3), 355; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12030355 - 1 Feb 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2549
Abstract
The long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis) is a vulnerable and declining species wintering in the Baltic Sea. The introduction of the invasive fish, the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), dramatically impacted the benthic macrofauna in hard-bottom habitats, while no significant changes [...] Read more.
The long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis) is a vulnerable and declining species wintering in the Baltic Sea. The introduction of the invasive fish, the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), dramatically impacted the benthic macrofauna in hard-bottom habitats, while no significant changes occurred in soft-bottom benthic macrofauna. Therefore, we aimed to assess the extent to which the diet of long-tailed ducks changed in two different bottom types. We analysed the stomach content of 251 long-tailed ducks bycaught in gillnets from 2016 to 2020 in hard- and soft-bottom habitats and compared these results with those published by Žydelis and Ruškyte (2005). The results show that the long-tailed duck experienced a change in diet in hard-bottom habitats, shifting from the blue mussel to Hediste diversicolor, barnacles, and fish. In soft-bottom habitats, their diet remained similar over time and was based on H. diversicolor, a few bivalve species, and Saduria entomon. There was no evidence of significant differences in diet between sex or age. Despite the abovementioned changes in diet, the average body condition of the species did not change over time or between habitats. This confirms that long-tailed ducks have high feeding flexibility and quick species response to changes in prey availability, as they are capable of shifting their diet to new prey. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Environmental Change on Bird Populations and Communities)
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12 pages, 1323 KiB  
Article
Individual Nest Site Preferences Do Not Explain Upslope Population Shifts of a Secondary Cavity-Nesting Species
by Elisa J. Abeyta, Andrew W. Bartlow, Charles D. Hathcock and Jeanne M. Fair
Animals 2021, 11(8), 2457; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11082457 - 21 Aug 2021
Viewed by 2849
Abstract
Geographic ranges of plants and animals are shifting due to environmental change. While some species are shifting towards the poles and upslope in elevation, the processes leading to these patterns are not well known. We analyzed 22 years of western bluebird (Sialia [...] Read more.
Geographic ranges of plants and animals are shifting due to environmental change. While some species are shifting towards the poles and upslope in elevation, the processes leading to these patterns are not well known. We analyzed 22 years of western bluebird (Sialia mexicana) data from a large nest box network in northern New Mexico at elevations between 1860 m and 2750 m. This population has shifted to higher elevations over time, but whether this is due to changes in nesting behavior and preference for higher elevation within the population or driven by immigration is unclear. We banded adults and nestlings from nest boxes and examined nesting location and elevation for individual birds captured two or more times. Most recaptured birds nested at the same nest boxes in subsequent years, and the number of birds that moved upslope did not significantly differ from the number that moved downslope. Fledglings moved greater distances and elevations than adults, but these movements were not upslope specific. Female fledglings showed greater changes in elevation and distance compared to male fledglings, but again, movements were not consistently upslope. The upslope shift in this population may be due to birds immigrating into the population and not from changes in individual nesting behavior. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Environmental Change on Bird Populations and Communities)
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13 pages, 8877 KiB  
Article
Increased Stopover Duration and Low Body Condition of the Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) at an Autumn Stopover Site
by Bernice Goffin, Marcial Felgueiras and Anouschka R. Hof
Animals 2020, 10(12), 2208; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10122208 - 25 Nov 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2658
Abstract
Many long-distance migratory bird species are in decline, of which environmental changes, such as climate change and land-use changes, are thought to be important drivers. The effects of environmental change on the migration of these birds have often been studied during spring migration. [...] Read more.
Many long-distance migratory bird species are in decline, of which environmental changes, such as climate change and land-use changes, are thought to be important drivers. The effects of environmental change on the migration of these birds have often been studied during spring migration. Fewer studies have explored the impacts of environmental change on autumn migration, especially at stopover sites. However, stopover sites are important, as the quality of these sites is expected to change over time. We investigated impacts of local environmental conditions on the migration strategy and body condition of the Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) at an autumn migration stopover site using long-term ringing data (1996–2018) and local environmental conditions. We found that although the arrival and departure dates of birds at the stopover site remained unchanged, the body condition (fat score) of the individuals caught decreased, and the stopover duration increased. This suggests that conditions at the stopover site during the autumn migration period have deteriorated over time. This study emphasizes the importance of suitable stopover sites for migratory birds and stresses that changes in environmental conditions during the autumn migration period may be contributing to the current decline in long-distance migratory passerines. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact of Environmental Change on Bird Populations and Communities)
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