0000000001330622
AUTHOR
ÅKe Lindström
showing 7 related works from this author
Substantial decline of Northern European peatland bird populations: Consequences of drainage
2017
Northern European peatlands are important habitats for biological conservation because they support rich biodiversity and unique species compositions. However, historical management of peatland habitats has had negative consequences for biodiversity and their degradation remains a major conservation concern. Despite increasing awareness of the conservation value of peatlands, the statuses and ecological requirements of peat land species have remained largely understudied. Here, we first analysed temporal trends of Northern European peatland birds to document the status of their populations using bird data from five different countries. Second, we used Finnish monitoring data to assess habit…
Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents
2016
Global climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. Large-scale analyses have generally focused on the impacts of climate change on the geographic ranges of species, and on phenology, the timing of ecological phenomena. Here, we use long-term monitoring of the abundance of breeding birds across Europe and the USA to produce, for both regions, composite population indices for two groups of species: those for which climate suitability has been either improving or declining since 1980. The ratio of these composite indices, the Climate Impact Indicator (CII), reflects the divergent fates of species favored or disadvantaged by climate change. The trend in CII is positive and similar in the …
Covariation in population trends and demography reveals targets for conservation action
2021
Wildlife conservation policies directed at common and widespread, but declining, species are difficult to design and implement effectively, as multiple environmental changes are likely to contribute to population declines. Conservation actions ultimately aim to influence demographic rates, but targeting actions towards feasible improvements in these is challenging in widespread species with ranges that encompass a wide range of environmental conditions. Across Europe, sharp declines in the abundance of migratory landbirds have driven international calls for action, but actions that could feasibly contribute to population recovery have yet to be identified. Targeted actions to improve condit…
Species distributions models may predict accurately future distributions but poorly how distributions change: A critical perspective on model validat…
2023
Aim: Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used to make predictions on how species distributions may change as a response to climatic change. To assess the reliability of those predictions, they need to be critically validated with respect to what they are used for. While ecologists are typically interested in how and where distributions will change, we argue that SDMs have seldom been evaluated in terms of their capacity to predict such change. Instead, typical retrospective validation methods estimate model's ability to predict to only one static time in future. Here, we apply two validation methods, one that predicts and evaluates a static pattern, while the other measures change…
Effects of Natura 2000 on nontarget bird and butterfly species based on citizen science data
2020
The European Union's Natura 2000 (N2000) is among the largest international networks of protected areas. One of its aims is to secure the status of a predetermined set of (targeted) bird and butterfly species. However, nontarget species may also benefit from N2000. We evaluated how the terrestrial component of this network affects the abundance of nontargeted, more common bird and butterfly species based on data from long-term volunteer-based monitoring programs in 9602 sites for birds and 2001 sites for butterflies. In almost half of the 155 bird species assessed, and particularly among woodland specialists, abundance increased (slope estimates ranged from 0.101 [SD 0.042] to 3.51 [SD 1.30…
ESM for Covariation in population trends and demography reveals targets for conservation action
2021
Supplementary methods, results and JAGS code
Declining populations of European mountain birds
2018
Mountain areas often hold special species communities and are thus in the high priority list of conservation. Changes in human land use, such as grazing pressure and afforestation, and especially in climate have been suggested as major threats for biodiversity in the mountain areas, because species have difficulties to find new suitable habitats in circumstances. Despite the special species communities very little is known about the population trends of species in mountain areas [1,2]. Here we studied population trends of 44 bird species in four major European mountain regions: Fennoscandia, UK upland, south-western (including Pyrenees) and south-central mountains (including Alps), covering…