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Understanding Predation (UP) Web of Science searches
The online literature database Web of Science (WoS) was searched for relevant literature using predefined search terms. These searches were divided into four main groups, each aimed at identifying
literature relevant to a different aspect of the review: ecology of the six focal prey species, effects of
predators on wild birds, other drivers of change affecting wild bird populations, and evidence for
effectiveness of management techniques. Search terms were constructed to balance volume of
literature returned with scope and comprehensiveness of the search. The search terms used for
each of these types of search are explained below.
1. Focal species: six separate searches (searches 1 to 6) were carried out, each requiring that topic
words included either the common name or scientific name of one of the six focal species (Table 1).
Only records including a European country or “Europe” in the topic were included, and the search
was not date-restricted.
Table 1. Search terms for literature relating to focal species. All searches included all of the common
terms in TITLE, ABSTRACT and KEYWORDS. Search settings covered all years in the database (1864 2015). Each search also contained one specific term, relating to a focal bird species, that was
searched in TITLE, ABSTRACT and KEYWORDS.
Criterion
AND
Search
Common terms
(EUROPE or ESTONIA OR CROATIA OR GERMANY OR SLOVAKIA OR
SPAIN OR IRELAND OR FRANCE OR GREECE OR ENGLAND OR LATVIA
OR "UNITED KINGDOM" OR UKRAINE OR POLAND OR SLOVENIA OR
"UK" OR BULGARIA OR ITALY OR NETHERLANDS OR WALES OR
SWEDEN OR FINLAND OR ROMANIA OR SWITZERLAND OR ICELAND
OR NORWAY OR DENMARK OR IRELAND OR BELGIUM OR CZECH* OR
PORTUGAL OR SCOTLAND OR HUNGARY OR AUSTRIA OR BOSNIA OR
YUGOSLAVIA OR ALBANIA OR MACEDONIA OR KOSOVO OR SERBIA
OR MONTENEGRO OR LUXEMBOURG OR ANDORRA OR MONACO OR
RUSSIA)
Hits
1
Specific term
"EURASIAN CURLEW" or "NUMENIUS ARQUATA"
2
"EURASIAN OYSTERCATCHER" or "HAEMATOPUS OSTRALEGUS"
1167
3
470
5
"EUROPEAN GOLDEN PLOVER" or "PLUVIALIS APRICARIA"
"NORTHERN LAPWING" or "COMMON LAPWING" or "VANELLUS
VANELLUS"
"BLACK GROUSE" or "TETRAO TETRIX"
6
"GREY PARTRIDGE" or "PERDIX PERDIX"
4
685
1784
1083
908
2. Effects of predators: nineteen searches were carried out, each requiring that results included
both of the terms BIRD* and PREDAT* (to increase the chance that it would include information
about the effects of predation on birds), one of the terms POPULATION* or PRODUCTIVITY or
REPRODUC* or SURVIV* or ABUNDANCE* or DISTRIBUT* (to focus the search on literature dealing
with effects on bird populations), and the common or scientific name of one of 19 avian predators of
wild birds in Britain and Ireland (searches 7 to 24), or elements of common or scientific names of the
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main mammalian predators of wild birds (searches 25 to 33) (Table 2 for details). Only records
including a European country or “Europe” in the topic were considered, and the search was
restricted to the period since the writing of the previous review - 2005 to 2015.
Table 2. Search terms for literature relating to predator effects. All searches included all of the
common terms in TITLE, ABSTRACT and KEYWORDS. In addition, searches were restricted to the
period 2005 - 2015 inclusive. Each search also contained one specific term, relating to one or more
predator species, that was searched in TITLE, ABSTRACT and KEYWORDS.
Criterion
Common term
AND
BIRD*
AND
PREDAT*
(POPULATION* or PRODUCTIVITY or REPRODUC* or SURVIV* or
ABUNDANCE* or DISTRIBUT*)
(UK or "UNITED KINGDOM" or "BRIT*" or WALES or SCOTLAND or IRELAND or
ENGLAND)
AND
AND
Search
7
Specific term
("Carrion Crow" or "Corvus corone")
Hits
8
("Hooded Crow" or "Corvus cornix")
46
9
("Northern Raven" or "Corvus corax")
30
10
("Golden Eagle" or "Aquila chrysaetos")
45
11
("Common Buzzard" or "Buteo buteo")
109
12
34
13
("Red Kite" or "Milvus milvus")
("Northern Goshawk" or "Accipiter gentilis")
111
14
("Sparrowhawk" or "Accipiter nisus")
119
15
("Peregrine" or "Falco peregrinus")
71
16
("Hen Harrier" or "Circus cyaneus")
55
17
("Tawny Owl" or "Strix aluco")
93
18
("Short-eared Owl" or "Asio flammeus")
19
19
("Arctic Skua" or "Stercorarius parasiticus")
7
20
("Great Skua" or "Stercorarius skua" or "Catharacta skua")
27
21
("Great Black-backed Gull" or "Larus marinus")
25
22
("Lesser Black-backed Gull" or "Larus fulvus")
18
23
("Herring Gull" or "Larus argentatus")
43
24
("Common Gull" or "Larus canus")
16
25
("Black-headed Gull" or "Chroicocephalus ridibundus" or "Larus ridibundus")
32
26
(Rat or Rattus)
126
27
(Cat or Felis)
100
28
183
29
("Red Fox" or "Vulpes vulpes")
(stoat OR weasel OR “pine marten” OR polecat OR ferret OR mink OR
Mustela)
30
(otter OR “Lutra lutra”)
33
31
(squirrel OR sciurus)
44
32
(“European Hedgehog” or “Erinaceus europaeus”)
17
33
("Badger" or "Meles meles")
23
83
150
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3. Drivers of change: eleven searches (searches 34 to 44) were carried out to identify drivers of
change in wild bird populations, each requiring that results included the term BIRD* and excluded
the terms POULTRY and CHICKEN (to minimise the inclusion of agricultural literature in the results).
An additional search (search 45) was carried out to identify drivers of change in mammalian
predators, substituting the term BIRD* with a composite term OR term comprising the elements of
mammal names included in searches 25 to 33 (see Table 3 for details). In order to restrict the results
to literature dealing with effects on populations, each search included a set of alternative
demographic terms similar to that included in type 2 (Effects of predators) searches. However, in
order to reduce the number of non-relevant records returned, the term POPULATION* was replaced
with more specific terms relating to population change: "POPULATION CHANGE" or "POPULATION
GROWTH" or "POPULATION DRIVER*" or "POPULATION INCREASE*" or "POPULATION DECREASE*".
Each search also included a composite term intended to focus it on literature dealing with one of
eleven categories population drivers: predation, environment, climate, land use, habitat, food
availability, disease, grazing, chemicals and non-native species (Table 3 for details). Only records
including UK or "UNITED KINGDOM" or BRIT* or WALES or SCOTLAND or IRELAND or ENGLAND were
considered, and the search was restricted to the period since the writing of the previous review 2005 to 2015.
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Table 3. Search terms for literature relating to drivers of wild bird population change. All searches
included all of the common terms in TITLE, ABSTRACT and KEYWORDS. In addition, searches were
restricted to the period 2005 - 2015 inclusive. Each search also contained one specific term, relating
to one or more drivers of change, that was searched in TITLE, ABSTRACT and KEYWORDS.
Criterion
Common term
AND
BIRD*
NOT
(POULTRY or CHICKEN)
("POPULATION CHANGE" or "POPULATION GROWTH" or
"POPULATION DRIVER*" or "POPULATION INCREASE*" or
"POPULATION DECREASE*" or REPRODUC* or SURVIV* or
ABUNDANCE* or DISTRIBUT*)
(UK or "UNITED KINGDOM" or "BRIT*" or WALES or SCOTLAND or
IRELAND or ENGLAND)
AND
AND
Search
Specific term
Hits
34
PREDAT*
35
"environment* change"
55
36
"CLIMATE CHANGE"
297
37
396
39
("LAND USE" or ABANDON* or INTENSIFI* or AFFOR*)
"HABITAT CHANGE" or "HABITAT QUALITY" or "HABITAT
IMPROVEMENT" or "HABITAT SUITABILITY"
("food availability" or "food supply" or "food source*" or forag* or diet*)
1057
40
DISEASE or PATHO* or parasit*
555
41
DISTURBANCE*
898
42
(DEER or LIVESTOCK or GRAZ* or SHEEP or CATTLE)
280
43
(HERBICID* or PESTICID*)
103
44
(INTRODUC* or NON-NATIVE or INVASIVE)
((Rat or Rattus) not (medic* or vet*)) or ((Cat or Felis) not (medic* or
vet*)) or "Red Fox" or "Vulpes vulpes" or stoat OR weasel OR “pine
marten” OR polecat OR ferret OR mink OR Mustela or otter OR “Lutra
lutra” or squirrel OR sciurus or “European Hedgehog” or “Erinaceus
europaeus” or "Badger" or "Meles meles"
228
38
45
905
141
568
4. Effectiveness of management: one search (search 46) was carried out for literature relating to
management for wild gamebirds and waders, specifying one of three terms relating to management
(MANAGEMENT or MITIGAT* or "PREDAT* CONTROL"), one of seven terms relating to gamebirds
and waders (GAMEBIRD* or SHOREBIRD* or WADER* or "WADING BIRD*" or "GROUSE" or
"PHEASANT*" or "PARTRIDGE*") one of four terms related to demographic targets of management
(POPULATION* or PRODUCTIVITY or REPRODUC* or SURVIV* or CONSERV*). Only records including
UK or "UNITED KINGDOM" or BRIT* or WALES or SCOTLAND or IRELAND or ENGLAND were
considered, and the search was not date-restricted (Table 4).
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The results of each search were saved as records in a separate collection in reference manager
software Zotero. The records in each search included (where relevant) title, authors, keywords,
source, date and abstract of each item returned by the search.
The scope of literature returned by the above searches is being assessed by re-running all of these
searches on time period up to 2005, and determining the proportion of the literature in the
bibliography of the previous review (Park et al. 2005) that is also returned by our searches. Any
literature covered in the previous review and not identified by our searches will be used to check the
efficacy of our search methodology, and how best we can fill any gaps identified (whether by
modifying one or more of our search terms, carrying out specific searches of one or more sources of
literature, or through some other means).
Table 4. Search terms for literature relating to management of wild bird populations. This search
(search 46) included all of the following terms in TITLE, ABSTRACT and KEYWORDS. Search settings
covered all years in the database (1864 - 2015). This search returned 793 hits.
Criterion
AND
AND
AND
AND
Common term
(MANAGEMENT or MITIGAT* or "PREDAT* CONTROL")
(GAMEBIRD* or SHOREBIRD* or WADER* or "WADING BIRD*" or "GROUSE" or
"PHEASANT*" or "PARTRIDGE*")
(POPULATION* or PRODUCTIVITY or REPRODUC* or SURVIV* or CONSERV*)
(UK or "UNITED KINGDOM" or "BRIT*" or WALES or SCOTLAND or IRELAND or
ENGLAND)
Evaluation of literature
The systematic searches of WoS described above generated an overall total of 14,033 records.
However, many records were duplicated between searches. These records are being rationalised to
eliminate duplicate records, and categorised according the search (or searches) that identified them.
All records are being screened for potential relevance to the project, with records being excluded
from further consideration on the basis of title, and then abstract. Non-English literature without an
English abstract is being categorised separately, but will not be considered further (unless very
specific knowledge gaps are identified), due to the extra time it would take to adequately translate
and assess it.
Records deemed to be potentially relevant on the basis of both title and abstract are being coded on
a three-point scale:
-
Relevance level 1: deals with a process or relationship of direct relevance to the review;
Relevance level 2: the topic falls within the remit of the review, but it is unclear whether the
subject matter of the literature is directly relevant;
Relevance level 3: unlikely to contain relevant information, but this possibility cannot be
ruled out.
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All literature classified as relevance level 1 will be obtained (where possible) and examined in greater
detail. A subset of relevance level 2 records will also be examined; preliminary indications are that
the number of records classed as level 2 will be between 3,000 and 4,000, so it is likely that we will
not have sufficient time to examine all of this literature exhaustively. We will therefore focus our
attention on the subset of level 2 literature that is potentially relevant to review topics where we
have not yet gathered sufficient evidence to reach firm conclusions.
Literature is deemed to be relevant if it quantifies a population-level effect or process and:
-
at a European level, deals with the predation of wild birds, or population regulation of any of
the six focal species, or
within Britain and Ireland, deals with population regulation of wild birds or the effectiveness
of management techniques for wild birds.
All literature deemed to be within the scope of the review will be coded according to the strength of
population effect suggested or demonstrated by the paper (three levels from negligible effect to
strong effect), and the strength/quality of evidence on which this demonstration was based.
Strength of evidence will also be coded on three levels, where level 1 is causal, level 2 is correlative
and level 3 is anecdotal. Literature will also be coded according to (where relevant) type of effect(s)
described, predator species involved, and type of bird impacted. Individual categories will be given
to each of the six focal species, and also to other groups of species to be determined during review,
according to those groups for which sufficient evidence is available (e.g. taxa, guilds or groupings by
broad habitat association).
All literature and other evidence suggested to us by stakeholders as providing relevance about
effects of predation on wild birds will be included in the review process, being subjected to the same
processes of screening for relevance and assessment for strength of effect and strength/quality of
evidence described above.
References
Park, K.J., Graham, K.E., Calladine, J., and Wernham, C.W. 2008. Impacts of birds of prey on
gamebirds in the UK: a review. Ibis 150: 9-26.
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