Environmental impacts on wetland birds: long-term monitoring programmes in the Camargue, France.

10 pages; International audience; Wetlands in the Mediterranean area have become a rare habitat due to human impact. To model the ecology and breeding biology of birds depending on that habitat, we describe long-term studies on two wetland birds (Little Egret Egretta garzetta and Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus (ruber) roseus) in the Camargue, France. The hydrological conditions in natural Mediterranean wetlands depend largely on the pattern of rainfall (winter) and evapotranspiration (summer), but have been substantially altered by human activities. In natural conditions, these wetlands are very diverse and therefore sustain a high diversity of breeding birds. At the same time their unpred…