Browsing by Subject "BOREAL BIRDS"

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  • Virkkala, Raimo; Lehikoinen, Aleksi (2017)
    Species richness is predicted to increase in the northern latitudes in the warming climate due to ranges of many southern species expanding northwards. We studied changes in the composition of the whole avifauna and in bird species richness in a period of already warming climate in Finland (in northern Europe) covering 1,100km in south-north gradient across the boreal zone (over 300,000km(2)). We compared bird species richness and species-specific changes (for all 235 bird species that occur in Finland) in range size (number of squares occupied) and range shifts (measured as median of area of occupancy) based on bird atlas studies between 1974-1989 and 2006-2010. In addition, we tested how the habitat preference and migration strategy of species explain species-specific variation in the change of the range size. The study was carried out in 10km squares with similar research intensity in both time periods. The species richness did not change significantly between the two time periods. The composition of the bird fauna, however, changed considerably with 37.0% of species showing an increase and 34.9% a decrease in the numbers of occupied squares, that is, about equal number of species gained and lost their range. Altogether 95.7% of all species (225/235) showed changes either in the numbers of occupied squares or they experienced a range shift (or both). The range size of archipelago birds increased and long-distance migrants declined significantly. Range loss observed in long-distance migrants is in line with the observed population declines of long-distance migrants in the whole Europe. The results show that there is an ongoing considerable species turnover due to climate change and due to land use and other direct human influence. High bird species turnover observed in northern Europe may also affect the functional diversity of species communities.
  • Yrjölä, Rauno A.; Tanskanen, Antti; Sarvanne, Hannu; Vickholm, Jorma; Lehikoinen, Aleksi (2018)
    Urbanization and other human activities can lead to decreasing animal populations in nearby areas. The impact of human activitiesmay vary depending on the characteristics of the areas and region or on the strength of the disturbance. We investigated forest bird population changes in an EU Natura 2000 area during the construction of the new Helsinki Vuosaari Harbour in southern Finland in 2002-2011 as part of an environmental impact assessment. We evaluated whether the changes observed were linked with the harbour construction work by comparing the populations at sites near the development with those corresponding values obtained from national common bird monitoring in southern Finland. Themean population changes of 23 boreal forest bird species that inhabited the Natura 2000 area and southern Finland were significantly and positively correlated, but the population inside the Natura 2000 study area also showed lower mean numbers (a mean decline of 9% occurred over the study period). Our case study emphasizes the importance of intensive monitoring before, during and after work at the construction site and in the surrounding areas to detect actual changes in the populations.
  • Lehikoinen, Aleksi; Virkkala, Raimo (2016)
    There is increasing evidence that climate change shifts species distributions towards poles and mountain tops. However, most studies are based on presence-absence data, and either abundance or the observation effort has rarely been measured. In addition, hardly any studies have investigated the direction of shifts and factors affecting them. Here, we show using count data on a 1000km south-north gradient in Finland, that between 1970-1989 and 2000-2012, 128 bird species shifted their densities, on average, 37km towards the north north-east. The species-specific directions of the shifts in density were significantly explained by migration behaviour and habitat type. Although the temperatures have also moved on average towards the north north-east (186km), the species-specific directions of the shifts in density and temperature did not correlate due to high variation in density shifts. Findings highlight that climate change is unlikely the only driver of the direction of species density shifts, but species-specific characteristics and human land-use practices are also influencing the direction. Furthermore, the alarming results show that former climatic conditions in the north-west corner of Finland have already moved out of the country. This highlights the need for an international approach in research and conservation actions to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
  • Valimaki, Kaisa; Linden, Andreas; Lehikoinen, Aleksi (2016)
    A multitude of studies confirm that species have changed their distribution ranges towards higher elevations and towards the poles, as has been predicted by climate change forecasts. However, there is large interspecific variation in the velocity of range shifts. From a conservation perspective, it is important to understand which factors explain variation in the speed and the extent of range shifts, as these might be related to the species' extinction risk. Here, we study shifts in the mean latitude of occurrence, as weighted by population density, in different groups of landbirds using 40 years of line transect data from Finland. Our results show that the velocity of such density shifts differed among migration strategies and increased with decreasing body size of species, while breeding habitat had no influence. The slower velocity of large species could be related to their longer generation time and lower per capita reproduction that can decrease the dispersal ability compared to smaller species. In contrast to some earlier studies of range margin shifts, resident birds and partial migrants showed faster range shifts, while fully migratory species were moving more slowly. The results suggest that migratory species, especially long-distance migrants, which often show decreasing population trends, might also have problems in adjusting their distribution ranges to keep pace with global warming.