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The Future of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker -In the Growing Municipality of Gothenburg

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The Future of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker -In the Growing Municipality of Gothenburg The future of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker -In the growing municipality of Gothenburg Foto: Uno Unger Johanna Ek Degree project for Master of Science in Biology Animal Ecology, 45 hec, 2015-2016 Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Gothenburg Supervisors: Donald Blomqvist, Frank Götmark and Emil Nilsson Examiner Charlotta Kvarnemo 1 2 Abstract Threats against species is one of the bigger problems concerning preservation of biological diversity today. In the member states of the EU, this concern has been addressed by the implementation of the bird directive together with the directive for the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora into their own legislations. In Sweden "the Swedish protection ordinance" was issued in 2007, making public authorities of all levels responsible to insure favorable conservation status for species included in the appendices of these directives, as well as for species on the national red list. In spite of this, the method of evaluating a species’ conservation status is still poorly developed across Europe and more research is needed. The protection of important species is applied partly on a national level and mostly on a local level and it is of each municipality responsibility to ensure favorable conservation status. This can result in fragmented habitat protection especially in municipalities with high development and growing human population. In the municipality of Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden, the rates of development (housing, etc) are high and evaluation is needed to assess the conservation status of the nationally red listed lesser spotted woodpecker (NT) (Dendrocopos minor ), the smallest of the indigenous woodpeckers of Sweden. This thesis aims to investigate if the municipality of Gothenburg's woodpecker population can be considered to have met all three criteria for favorable conservation status, by locating suitable habitats and potential breeding territories for the species and analyze its exploitation risks and landownership. A field study was conducted on randomly selected potential breeding sites during March-May 2016, to compare the population data with older inventories made before the initiation of the EU directives. The results indicate that the Gothenburg woodpecker population seems to be maintaining itself as a viable unit (criterion a) and that the distribution of the population in the municipality's different regions has not changed (criterion b), but a tendency for relocation from central to northern parts can be deducted. The habitat analysis suggests that the municipality contains 3233 ha of potential breeding habitat which could sustain a range of 32- 162 pairs (criterion c). Only 65% of the area investigated in the field study 2016 was utilized, thus not all available habitats is used. About 2115 ha within the whole municipality seem be utilized today. For protection status of the breeding habitat, only 506 ha are located within a nature reserve or a Nature 2000 area. To conclude, the population of lesser spotted woodpecker within the municipality fulfills two out of three criteria for favorable conservation status, but more habitat needs to be preserved to ensure that the species can persist in a long term basis. If the municipality were to preserve the 2 233 ha of habitat on its own land as well, fulfillment of all three criteria could be claimed for the population in the future. This study shows that it is possible to quantitatively evaluate the conservation status of a species, though improvements are necessary. More actors across Europe should therefore take responsibility for evaluating the status of listed species. 3 Abstrakt Förlusten av arter är ett av de större problemen när det gäller bevarandet av den biologiska mångfalden. I EUs medlemsländer har detta problem hanterats genom utfärdandet av olika direktiv med syfte att bevara och skydda utsatta arter. Två av dessa är Fågeldirektivet från 1979 och Art- och habitatsdirektivet från 1992. I Sverige har dessa direktiv implementerats in i Artskyddsförordningen 2007, som bland annat fridlyser alla fågelarter. Denna implementering gör även alla nivåer av myndigheter ansvariga för att gynnsam bevarandestatus försäkras för arter som är upptagna i bilagorna till dessa direktiv samt arter på den svenska rödlistan. Trots detta är metoden för att utvärdera en arts bevarandestatus fortfarande under utveckling i Europa, och mer forskning behövs. Skydd av arter implementeras delvis på nationell nivå men implementeras huvudsakligen på lokal nivå inom kommuner och i kommuner med växande population och hög exploatering är det extra viktigt att säkerställa känsliga arters habitat. I Göteborgs kommun är exploateringsgraden hög, och en utvärdering av hur den rödlistade mindre hackspetten (NT) behövs för att säkerställa att arten inte minskar i antal och uppnår gynnsam bevarandestatus trots nuvarande och planerade exploateringar. Denna avhandling syftar därför till att undersöka om kommunens population av mindre hackspett kan anses ha uppfyllt alla tre kriterier för gynnsam bevarandestatus. Detta studerades genom att lokalisera lämpliga habitat och potentiella häckningsområden och analysera dess markägarförhållanden och exploateringsrisk. En fältstudie utfördes på slumpmässigt utvalda lokaler, distribuerade över hela kommunen under mars-maj 2016. För att utvärdera populationsutvecklingen och utbredningsområdet jämfördes data med äldre inventeringar som genomfördes före implementeringen av EU direktiven. Resultaten visade att populationen inom Göteborg är stabil, och utbredningen mellan kommunens olika regioner inte har förändrats sedan implementeringen. Men tendenser till omlokalisering av individer från centrala delar till den norra regionen finns. Analysen av biotop och häckningsmiljö visade att kommunen totalt sett innehåller 3233 ha av häckningsbiotop, tillräckligt för 32-162 par. Endast 65 % av den undersökta arean ha i fältstudien 2016 utnyttjades och visar på att inte all potentiell biotop används idag. Ca 2 115 ha inom hela kommunen uppskattas utnyttjas idag. Mängden skyddad biotop inom kommunen är endast 506 ha, vilket innebär att populationen av mindre hackspett inom kommunen uppfyller två av tre kriterier för gynnsam bevaradestatus, men tillräckligt stor yta av skyddad biotop är inte säkrad för att garantera populationens bevarande på lång sikt. Om kommunen skulle åta sig att bevara majoriteten av de 2 234 ha biotop lokaliserat på deras egen mark skulle gynnsam bevarandestatus kunna uppnås i framtiden. Men en närmare undersökning av kommunala planer behövs innan dessa slutsatser dras för att säkerhetsställa att inte större områden redan är lagligt bindande till att bli exploaterade. Denna avhandling har visat att det är möjligt att kvantitativt utvärdera en arts bevarandestatus även om förbättringar och effektiviseringar är möjliga. Fler aktörer i hela Europa bör därför ta ett större ansvar och lägga mer insatser på att utvärdera arters bevarandestatus, så att direktivens syfte kan uppfyllas i framtiden. 4 Table of contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 6 1.1 The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker ...................................................................................... 6 1.2 Bird protection in the European Union and Sweden ........................................................ 7 1.3 Municipality plans and their legal extent ......................................................................... 8 1.4 The municipality of Gothenburg ...................................................................................... 9 1.5 Aim and hypothesis .......................................................................................................... 9 2. Method ................................................................................................................................. 10 2.1 Study species .................................................................................................................. 10 2.1.1 Habitat and mating systems in the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker ............................ 10 2.1.2 Foraging .................................................................................................................. 11 2.1.3 Nesting .................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Habitat and habitat analysis in present study ................................................................. 12 2.3 Selection of sites for the field study ............................................................................... 13 2.4 Field study ...................................................................................................................... 15 2.5 Statistical analyzes ......................................................................................................... 15 3. Results .................................................................................................................................. 16 3.1 Population dynamics and viability, including range ...................................................... 16 3.2 Habitat conditions .......................................................................................................... 16 3.3 Influences
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