Stone-curlews Burhinus oedicnemus and recreational disturbance: developing a management tool for access

Stone-curlews Burhinus oedicnemus have a vulnerable population status in the UK after a large population decline and range contraction since the 1930s. Much Stone-curlew breeding habitat is open-access land designated under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. In order to guide the conservation and habitat management for this species whilst allowing recreational access, a tool known as the Stone-Curlew Access Response Evaluator (SCARE) has been developed. SCARE offers a method to assess the effects of scenarios for future changes in disturbance type, routes and frequency and will be valuable in making informed decisions about the management of public access to Stone-curlew breeding sites and the deployment of habitat creation measures.     

Approaches to measuring the effects of human disturbance on birds

Human recreational activities are often considered as potential threats to biodiversity, by restricting animals' access to resources that otherwise would be exploited. Because access to wildlife areas is one major means of increasing their public value, and hence the pressure to conserve them, it is clearly critical to be able to identify accurately when human presence is a threat to conservation and when it is not. A wide range of methods have been used to assess the impacts of human disturbance on wildlife and these methods are summarized here. The type of method used depends principally on whether the disturbance issue relates to a particular site, a particular group of individuals or whole populations. Within these categories, both comparative and experimental approaches have been used to assess behavioural, distributional, demographic and population responses to human presence. Examples of each approach are given here, together with an assessment of the information each method provides.     

Predicting the effect of disturbance on coastal birds

Assessments of whether disturbance is having a deleterious effect on populations have often measured behavioural responses to disturbance and assumed that populations with a larger behavioural response are more susceptible to disturbance. However, there is no guarantee that the behavioural response to disturbance is related to the population consequence, measured in terms of decreased reproduction or increased mortality. Individual-based models, consisting of fitness-maximizing individuals, are one means of linking the behavioural responses to disturbance to population consequences. This paper reviews how individual-based models have been used to predict the effect of disturbance on populations of shorebirds and wildfowl at several European sites, and shows how these models could be improved in the future by incorporating a range of alternative responses to disturbance.     

Testing the effects of recreational disturbance on two upland breeding waders

Previous work has shown that Golden Plovers Pluvialis apricaria guarding chicks utilize heavily disturbed habitat at a lower rate than surrounding areas, but that such rates of avoidance are reduced when the movement of people is restricted to a surfaced footpath. However, there remained some unanswered questions, which are addressed in this paper. First, we examine to what extent habitat avoidance is dependent upon visitor numbers, and find no evidence that Golden Plovers avoided disturbed areas at a site where visitor pressure was half that previously studied. Secondly, we examine whether these relationships between habitat occupancy and disturbance apply to other upland waders and find that Dunlin Calidris alpina habitat utilization in disturbed areas showed a non-significant increase of approximately 50% following the provision of a surfaced footpath, in a manner similar to that observed for Golden Plover. Thirdly, we examine whether the large numbers of visitors (120 per weekend day) using the surfaced footpath impact on Golden Plover breeding success, despite the lack of habitat avoidance. There was no evidence that nest location, clutch survival or chick growth rates were reduced close to the footpath. Together, these results suggest that high levels of disturbance can impact upon habitat usage by upland waders, but only in limited circumstances where visitor pressure is very high (greater than at least 30 visitors per weekend day). However, access to such areas can be permitted for large numbers of visitors without impacting upon wader reproductive performance through the provision of a well-surfaced route.     

Short-term social memory in the laboratory rat: its susceptibility to disturbance

Adult rats presented with a juvenile conspecific for 5 min on two occasions, separated by a 15-min inter-exposure interval (IEI), investigated the reintroduced juvenile significantly less in the second encounter. It is suggested that this was because the adult rats remembered the identity of the juvenile, because when a novel juvenile was introduced for the second encounter, no such reduction in investigation was observed. When the rats were either handled, placed in a smaller, novel, cage, or introduced to a new juvenile midway through the IEI, investigation of the reintroduced juvenile did not decrease. This indicated that memory of that juvenile had been disrupted. However, a simple change of cage during the IEI had no disruptive effect on memory. These results suggest that routine husbandry procedures can disrupt short-term social memory, which may lead to an increase in aggression due to a failure of recognition. This has implications for the welfare of captive social animals.     

New perspectives for research on antarctic birds and mammals

New technology, that is based on miniaturization of electronic equipment and progress in computers, now enables us to get data on the foraging behavior of Antarctic birds and mammals. This technical revolution is of a major scientific importance because until recently it was considered impossible to study where animals feed and how much they consume. Accordingly, feeding strategies may now be studied in relation to breeding status or availability in marine resources. This, in turn, facilitates the use of antarctic animals as indicators of the changes in these resources. Automatic indentification and weighing of breeding seabirds has also become possible. This means changes in their body condition, i.e. body fuel reserves and food stores at sea, can be monitored. Thus a short-term indication of the changes in the availability of some marine resources may now be obtained. These new methods represent a major advance because they open new research possibilities, whereby antarctic animals can be individually monitored or at a population level, ashore and at sea, while minimizing human disturbance.Paper presented at the Symposium on Polar regions: the challenge for biological and ecological research organized by the Swiss Committee for Polar Research, Basel on 2 October 1992     

Dugong foraging behavior on tropical intertidal seagrass meadows: the influence of climatic drivers and anthropogenic disturbance

Hydrobiologia - Foraging strategies of dugongs in tropical areas are not yet well understood, and that is particularly true for grazing of fast-growing pioneer seagrass meadows in the intertidal...     

Harnessing the placebo effect: the need for translational research

Laboratory research recently has greatly enhanced the understanding of placebo and nocebo effects by identifying specific neuromodulators and brain areas associated with them. However, little progress has been made in translating this knowledge into improved patient care. Here, we discuss the limitations in our knowledge about placebo (and nocebo) effects and the need for translational research with the aim of guiding physicians in maximizing placebo effects and minimizing nocebo effects in their routine clinical practice. We suggest some strategies for how, when and why interventions to promote beneficial placebo responses might be administered in the clinical setting.     

A systematic review of the effects of recreational activities on nesting birds of prey

Human disturbance to wildlife is a growing topic of concern owing to increasing human access to the countryside. Here we use systematic review methodology to specifically synthesize available information on the impact of recreational activities on raptor breeding parameters. Presently there is insufficient information to quantitatively meta-analyze this topic. The most frequent effect turned out to be decreased time for nest attendance but information on effects on breeding parameters was inconclusive. The only outcome susceptible to quantitative meta-analysis was the influence on nest location of a number of anthropic structures. Out of these we chose distance to the closest paved road, because it was the metric recorded in the largest number of studies, and because it can be taken as a surrogate of recreational access to the countryside. We detected an overall statistically significant impact on the displacement of nests from roads from a total of 25 studies, compared to random points in unoccupied areas suitable for breeding. The magnitude of the displacement was probably a biologically relevant magnitude (back-transformed ln response ratio 1.28; 1.07–1.57 bootstrap 95% CI). Importantly, statistical modelling of effect sizes as a function of raptor body size and nesting site substrate (tree nesting vs. cliff nesting) identified an effect of both nesting habitat and body size on nest placement by raptors in relation to roads. Big raptors nesting in trees exhibited greater displacement distances from nests to roads than big raptors nesting in cliffs, and hence we suggest that conservation efforts should take special attention to this vulnerable raptor group which includes some threatened species.     

Historical contributions of research on birds to behavioral neuroendocrinology

The contributions from bird research to behavioral neuroendocrinology are enormous and wide ranging. I have selected examples that illustrate how through the twentieth century to the present day, birds as experimental models continue to play a major role. Investigations on birds were pivotal in the beginnings of endocrinology, and have laid the foundations for present day developments in neurobiology, physiological ecology and evolutionary biology of neuroendocrine systems. The extensive literature on avian behavior also provides a unique and broad base for the field in general and future progress on a broad front can be expected. Molecular genetics in avian systems is advanced providing us with phylogenetic perspective allowing the comparisons of different avian populations that provide valuable models for integrative research.     

Open access :an opportunity for biomedical research

Open access within the scientific community depends on the scientific context and the practices of the field. In the biomedical domain, the communication of research results is characterised by the importance of the peer reviewing process, the existence of a hierarchy among journals and the transfer of copyright to the editor. Biomedical publishing has become a lucrative market and the growth of electronic journals has not helped lower the costs. Indeed, it is difficult for today's public institutions to gain access to all the scientific literature. Open access is thus imperative, as demonstrated through the positions taken by a growing number of research funding bodies, the development of open access journals and efforts made in promoting open archives. This article describes the setting up of an Inserm portal for publication in the context of the French national protocol for open-access self-archiving and in an international context.     

Malaria control: present situation and need for historical research

A rapid review is made of the history of malaria control, calling attention to differences between the evolution of the technical concepts, the formulated strategies and their implementation. Particular emphasis is placed on the discussion of the present situation of the world malaria problem and the difficulties faced by many endemic countries in adopting a malaria control strategy, based on primary health care, while their services are vertically organized for the performance of routines, which are irrelevant for disease control. The present malaria control strategy recognizes local variability, but it is possible to identify a limited number of types of situations, likely to respond to similar approaches. The definition not only of the control approaches but also of their conditions of applicability will become more precise as experiences are accumulated and adequately documented from different types of epidemiological situations. It is postulated that historical research on the malaria control and public health approaches, with proper attention being given to their socioeconomic and political context, in the countries which succeeded in controlling endemic malaria, will make an important contribution to such a definition.     

Exploring the implications of recreational disturbance on an endangered butterfly using a novel modelling approach

Site and wildlife managers globally are under increasing pressure to implement management strategies that address the negative implications of outdoor recreational activities on wildlife. For many rare and isolated species any anthropogenic activities that cause disturbance could potentially be detrimental to existing populations. Understanding how non-consumptive recreation can influence a species may therefore be critical to its preservation. We developed a novel approach to specifically address this need. Using a combination of field surveys and simulation modelling exercises, we (1) explored the responses of endangered Karner blue butterflies (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) to recreation, (2) assessed whether such responses influenced oviposition rate and/or host plant choice and (3) tested alternative management strategies that could alleviate the negative impacts of recreation. Our field surveys confirmed that Karner blues were sensitive to recreational disturbance. Butterflies flushed at similar speeds and distances from recreationists (2.2 m at 0.17 m/s), as they would from natural threats, such as predators (2.2 m at 0.19 m/s). Incorporating female response parameters into a simulation model revealed that regular disturbance could reduce egg laying potential and significantly restrict host plant choice, which in turn, could impact the butterfly’s population dynamics. However, we established that it was possible to effectively offset the implications of recreational disturbance using our simulation modelling approach. For example, extending Karner blue breeding habitat from trails and other public rights of way has the potential to alleviate such disturbance. Our study demonstrates that the potential impact of recreation on species of conservation concern should not be overlooked.