Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2017

Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V1

Impact of forestry on meadow birds

Höfundar / Authors: Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir (1, 2), Tómas Grétar Gunnarsson (1, 2), Snæbjörn Pálsson (1), José Alves (2) and Jenny Gill (3)

Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1. Háskóli Íslands, 2. Rannsóknasetur Háskóla Íslands á Suðurlandi, 3. University of East Anglia

Kynnir / Presenter: Aldís Erna Pálsdóttir

Many wader populations have been shown to be declining in the world and therefore it is important to conserve the habitat of these species. Birds need a certain amount of area for their territory and sometimes a different habitat for raising their young. Habitat fragmentation is when a continuous habitat is separated into smaller units. The diverse landscape of Iceland supports a very high number of waders and large portions of several bird populations such as the Golden Plover (52%) and Whimbrel (40%) nest here. Iceland is a very sparsely populated country which makes it ideal for studying the first effects of habitat fragmentation. Forestry can be one form of habitat fragmentation and is widely implemented in the Icelandic lowlands which are the most important habitat for meadow birds. Increasing forestry measures can have a detrimental effect on the nesting of these species which in turn can affect the breeding output and ultimately the population size. In this research transects were conducted from forests and into the surrounding habitat where birds were counted to examine if meadow birds (most common being waders and meadow pipit) tend to avoid forest or are even drawn to them during their nesting period. The results vary a lot between species, showing forest avoidance in some waders such as Whimbrel while other species such as Raven and Snipe seem to be drawn to forests.