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 agri- environment 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 trend Black Redstart stable Tree Pipit moderate decline* Fieldfare hard decline* Water Pipit moderate decline* Yellowhammer moderate decline* Dunnock Whinchat Northern Wheatear Common Rock Thrush Ring Ouzel uncertain Lesser Whitethroat Garden Warlber Carrion Crow Common Redpoll * 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 trend Black Redstart moderate increase* Northern Wheatear moderate increase* Whinchat moderate decline* Fieldfare moderate decline** Garden Warlber moderate decline** Yellowhammer moderate decline* Tree Pipit stable Water Pipit stable Dunnock stable Ring Ouzel stable Carrion Crow stable Common Rock Thrush uncertain Lesser Whitethroat uncertain Common Redpoll 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 trend av. var. % 2000-2012 Codirosso spazzacamino (Black Redstart) moderate increase + 1.65 % Culbianco (Northern Wheatear) moderate increase + 2.05 % Stiaccino (Whinchat) moderate decline - 3.48 % Cesena (Fieldfare) moderate decline - 6.82 % Beccafico (Garden Warlber) moderate decline - 4.50 % Zigolo giallo (Yellowhammer) moderate decline - 2.05 % Prispolone (Tree Pipit) stable - 0.69 % Spioncello (Water Pipit) stable -1.43 % Passera scopaiola (Dunnock) stable - 0.97 % Merlo dal collare (Ring Ouzel) stable - 0.92 % Cornacchia nera (Carrion Crow) stable - 0.35 % Codirossone (Common Rock Thrush) uncertain Bigiarella (Lesser Whitethroat) uncertain - Organetto (Common Redpoll) 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 %
- 0.97 % - 1.43 %
- 0.92 %
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 + + + = = na Northern Wheatear + + na na - na Tree Pipit = = - - + - Whinchat ------Fieldfare - - na - - na Garden Warbler - - na - na = Yellowhammer - = - - - = Water Pipit = = na na na na Dunnock = + na - = = Ring Ouzel = - na na na na Carrion Crow = + = + + + Common Rock Thrush na + na na na na Lesser Whitethroat na = na = na =
Common Redpoll na = na na na na TheThe results shownshown until now are calculated considering the entire Italian surface andand this can lead to the possibility of some misunderstanding in results interpretationinterpretation
IndeedIndeed itit is known, also for farmland species (Calvi et al. 2013), that the national speciesspecies trendtrend could hide different trends of a species in different environments or inin specific geographicalgeographical areas
ItIt has been been then calculated the FBIpm using only data from the Alps and comparingcomparing itit 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 macro-
ecological 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 trend av. var. % 2000-2012 All mountains Alps All mountains Alps Black Redstart mod. increase* stable + 1.65 % - 0.22 % Northern Wheatear mod. increase* mod. increase* + 2.05 % + 3.17 % Whinchat mod. decline* mod.decline* - 3.48 % - 3.52 % Fieldfare mod. decline** mod. decline** - 6.82 % Garden Warlber mod. decline** mod. decline** - 4.50 % - 4.81 % Yellowhammer mod. decline* stable - 2.05 % - 1.35 % Tree Pipit stable stable - 0.69 % - 0.85 % Water Pipit stable stable -1.43 % -1.85 % Dunnock stable stable - 0.97 % - 0.81 % Ring Ouzel stable stable - 0.92 % - 0.22 % Carrion Crow stable stable - 0.35 %
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 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 agri- environmental schemes and the conservation projects..... similar CAP policy for the entire Alpine region?
ThanksThanks forfor thethe attention...... attention......
.....and.....and toto allall peoplepeople whowho makemake thisthis projectproject possiblepossible