Download Population Index of Common Breeding Birds in Italian Mountain

Population Index of Common Breeding Birds in
Italian Mountain Prairies
Rural development: A critical opportunity for people and biodiversity
With a spotlight on the Alpine region
Turin 6 november 2013
Mountains cover almost a quarter of the Earth surface, host more than 16% of
global human population but provide services to many more communities and
people
Mountains provide many kind of resources that have positive impacts on
human health and its prosperity far beyond their natural boundaries. One for
all, water
The mountains contribute for the 16% to the Italian national GDP
However, despite their importance, the conservation status of mountains is not
so satisfactory and many problems exist. Some of these are related with human
presence and activities, e.g. effects of climate change, pollution, settlement and
infrastructures development and tourism pressure; others with the opposite
phenomena e.g. changes in cultural landscape and decrease of open habitats,
and their biodiversity, due to the land abandonment
For these reasons, MITO2000 project (the Italian national common bird
monitoring scheme) decided to focus on species breeding in mountain open
habitats
MITO2000 is part of PECBMS (Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring
Scheme), a Europe-wide network of national breeding bird monitoring
projects. This network produces indices of population trends of many breeding
bird species. One of the most important index is the FBI (Farmland Bird
Index), that is one of the EU indicators to assess the impact of agrienvironment measures of the CAP
These indices are “aggregated indices” because they are calculated averaging
the population trends of some species, choosen on the basis of their shared
ecological preferences
Through objective procedures we identified a group of species breeding in
mountain open habitats and, from 2009, we used them to build up a new
aggregate index, named FBIpm ( Mountain Prairies Index)
Some results ......
In 2009, it was not possible to calculate defined trends for most of FBIpm
species (9 out of 14) and, consequently, the relevance of the index was very low
species
Black Redstart
Tree Pipit
Fieldfare
Water Pipit
Yellowhammer
Dunnock
Whinchat
Northern Wheatear
Common Rock Thrush
Ring Ouzel
Lesser Whitethroat
Garden Warlber
Carrion Crow
Common Redpoll
trend
stable
moderate decline*
hard decline*
moderate decline*
moderate decline*
uncertain
* p = 0.05 ** p = 0.01
From 2010 to 2012, thanks to the contribution of the Italian Ministry of
Agricultural and Forestry Policies, the situation has improved and now we have
defined trends for 11 out of 14 species
species
Black Redstart
Northern Wheatear
Whinchat
Fieldfare
Garden Warlber
Yellowhammer
Tree Pipit
Water Pipit
Dunnock
Ring Ouzel
Carrion Crow
Common Rock Thrush
Lesser Whitethroat
Common Redpoll
trend
moderate increase*
moderate increase*
moderate decline*
moderate decline**
moderate decline**
moderate decline*
stable
stable
stable
stable
stable
uncertain
uncertain
uncertain
* p = 0.05 ** p = 0.01
Results show a general negative situation; the aggregate index shows an important
decrease, with an annual percentage variation of about – 1.77 %
1.1
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
- 1.77 %
0.6
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
FBIpm “All Mountains”
Population species trends
species
Codirosso spazzacamino (Black Redstart)
Culbianco (Northern Wheatear)
Stiaccino (Whinchat)
Cesena (Fieldfare)
Beccafico (Garden Warlber)
Zigolo giallo (Yellowhammer)
Prispolone (Tree Pipit)
Spioncello (Water Pipit)
Passera scopaiola (Dunnock)
Merlo dal collare (Ring Ouzel)
Cornacchia nera (Carrion Crow)
Codirossone (Common Rock Thrush)
Bigiarella (Lesser Whitethroat)
Organetto (Common Redpoll)
trend
av. var. % 2000-2012
moderate increase
+ 1.65 %
moderate increase
+ 2.05 %
moderate decline
- 3.48 %
moderate decline
- 6.82 %
moderate decline
- 4.50 %
moderate decline
- 2.05 %
stable
- 0.69 %
stable
-1.43 %
stable
- 0.97 %
stable
- 0.92 %
stable
- 0.35 %
uncertain
uncertain
uncertain
9 out of 14 species show a negative trend, and for 4 of them the decrease is
significant (moderate decline)
- 4.50 %
- 6.82 %
- 2.05 %
- 3.48 %
The others (5) are classified as stable (even if all of them have a sign minus for their trends)
- 0.35 %
- 0.69 %
- 1.43 %
- 0.92 %
- 0.97 %
only 2 out of 14 are increasing......
+ 2.05 %
+ 1.65 %
Summarising and comparing the population trends of selected species among
Alpine countries, it has been found a quite similar situation: many of the species
considered in this presentation have negative trends, while for many others trends
are not available or uncertain (na):
Black Redstart
Northern Wheatear
Tree Pipit
Whinchat
Fieldfare
Garden Warbler
Yellowhammer
Water Pipit
Dunnock
Ring Ouzel
Carrion Crow
Common Rock Thrush
Lesser Whitethroat
Common Redpoll
+
+
+
=
=
na
+
+
na
na
-
na
=
=
-
-
+
-
-
-
--
-
-
-
-
-
na
-
-
na
-
-
na
-
na
=
-
=
-
-
-
=
=
=
na
na
na
na
=
+
na
-
=
=
=
-
na
na
na
na
=
+
=
+
+
+
na
+
na
na
na
na
na
=
na
=
na
=
na
=
na
na
na
na
The results shown until now are calculated considering the entire Italian surface
and this can lead to the possibility of some misunderstanding in results
interpretation
Indeed it is known, also for farmland species (Calvi et al. 2013), that the national
species trend could hide different trends of a species in different environments or
in specific geographical areas
It has been then calculated the FBIpm using only data from the Alps and
comparing it with the national FBIpm
Calvi G., Buvoli L., Campedelli T., Cutini S., de Carli E., Fornasari L., Londi G., Rossi P., Sorace A.,
& Tellini Florenzano G. 2013. Farmland Bird Index in Italy: different trends within macroecological regions can hide critical situations for farmland species. Book of abstracts of the 19th
Conference of the European Bird Census Council, Cluj, pp. 21.
Trend of the two aggregate indices
1.1
1
- 1.20 %
0.9
0.8
- 1.77 %
0.7
0.6
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
FBIpm “All Mountains”
FBIpm “Alps”
Also comparing the single species trends, some differences appear ......
species
Black Redstart
Northern Wheatear
Whinchat
Fieldfare
Garden Warlber
Yellowhammer
Tree Pipit
Water Pipit
Dunnock
Ring Ouzel
Carrion Crow
trend
av. var. % 2000-2012
All mountains
mod. increase*
mod. increase*
mod. decline*
mod. decline**
mod. decline**
Alps
stable
mod. increase*
mod.decline*
mod. decline**
mod. decline**
All mountains
+ 1.65 %
+ 2.05 %
- 3.48 %
- 6.82 %
- 4.50 %
mod. decline*
stable
stable
stable
stable
stable
stable
stable
stable
stable
stable
stable
- 2.05 %
- 0.69 %
-1.43 %
- 0.97 %
- 0.92 %
- 0.35 %
Alps
- 0.22 %
+ 3.17 %
- 3.52 %
- 4.81 %
- 1.35 %
- 0.85 %
-1.85 %
- 0.81 %
- 0.22 %
It seems to be a specific situation in the Alps, suggesting that the drivers leading
changes in bird populations in the Alps might be quite different from those acting
in other mountain landscapes
Main conclusions:
1. the general negative condition experimented by these species is due to the
interaction, often sinergic, of many factors (climate and landscape changes...);
this situation stresses the importance of direct conservation actions: if the
climate changes and forest grows up at higher altitude, the effect of grazing in
reduce the land afforestation becomes more and more important......;
2. it is essential to continue to monitoring the population trends and the
conservation status of these species, above all to have an assessment of the
efficiency of conservation actions;
3. with the aim to improve our monitoring efficiency, we have to collaborate with
the other alpine countries that are coping with our same problems.......we have
started to do it....
4. at the same way, we can hypothesize something similar for the agrienvironmental schemes and the conservation projects..... similar CAP policy for
the entire Alpine region?
Thanks for the attention.......
.....and to all people who make this project possible