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Quantitative assessment of supplementary feeding as an adaptive conservation management strategy for red-billed choughs.

补充饲喂作为红嘴山鸦适应性保护管理策略的定量评估。

基本信息

批准号：
1970082
负责人：
金额：
--
依托单位：
University of Aberdeen
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Studentship
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2017 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1970082
关键词：
Quantitative assessment supplementary feeding adaptive

项目摘要

Successful conservation of wildlife populations requires effective management policies to be enacted by government and non-government agencies, thereby maintaining wildlife's intrinsic, cultural and economic benefits. One key paradigm is adaptive management, where i) scientific understanding of ecological and demographic drivers of population change is used to plan and implement management; ii) impacts on population ecology, demography and dynamics are quantified; iii) resulting evidence is used to plan subsequent management. However, such adaptive management is rarely enacted, not least because high-quality data quantifying short-term and longer-term impacts of initial management are rarely collected or rigorously analysed, eroding the evidence-base for future policy.This project provides an outstanding multidisciplinary training opportunity for a PhD student to develop an exemplary adaptive management model for one of the UK's most endangered birds, the red-billed chough. The student will rigorously evaluate effects of a key management intervention, supplementary feeding, applied in a Scottish chough population of major conservation concern. They will work alongside government conservation agency staff involved in research, policy and operation, and stakeholders and academics, to use resulting evidence to decide future conservation policy. The project will thereby train a new scientist to drive science-policy convergence, advancing society's ability to conserve valued wildlife populations through adaptive management.Provision of supplementary food is a key management tool for food-limited target populations. However, althoughvertebrate population dynamics are commonly constrained by low sub-adult and adult survival, supplementary feeding regimes typically focus instead on increasing breeding success. Despite its potential as a key management tool, few experimental or management interventions have fed sub-adults, or evaluated short-term effects on sub-adult survival. Further, such feeding could have profound longer-term effects by altering sub-adult dispersal, age at first breeding or subsequent reproduction. However, no studies have quantified such effects or hence evaluated overall effects ofsupplementary feeding of sub-adults on population growth rate. Scotland's remaining chough population is limited to Islay and Colonsay and is of major conservation concern and socioeconomicvalue due to eco-tourism, cultural significance and links to low-intensity pastoral agriculture. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Scotland's statutory conservation agency, is obliged to undertake appropriate management action.Analyses of high-quality demographic data for 1983-2009 showed that variation in chough population size largely reflects variation in sub-adult survival, and very high sub-adult mortality during 2007-2009 threatened population viability. SNH therefore funded a programme of supplementary feeding of sub-adult choughs and associated demographic monitoring. A subset of sub-adults on Islay were/will be fed daily during July-April 2010-2018, by Scottish Chough Study Group (SCSG). Detailed ring resighting and nest monitoring data have been collected to allow survival, dispersal and reproduction of fed and unfed individuals to be quantified.The PhD student will use this truly remarkable multi-year dataset to comprehensively assess effects of supplementary feeding of sub-adults on demography and population growth rate using Before-During-Control-Impact (BDCI) analyses encompassing 1983-2019. They will work with SNH and SCSG (CASE and project partners) to use their results to decide future feeding policy in the wider context of habitat management enacted by the Scottish Rural Development Programme. They will thereby undertake excellent science to quantify effects of a novel form of supplementary feeding, and directly influence conservation policy and practice for a rare bird for which UK governments are responsible.

野生动物种群的成功保护需要政府和非政府机构制定有效的管理政策，从而维护野生动物的内在、文化和经济利益。一个关键的范例是适应性管理，其中i)利用对人口变化的生态和人口驱动因素的科学理解来规划和实施管理；Ii)量化对人口生态、人口统计和动态的影响；Iii)产生的证据用于规划后续管理。然而，这种适应性管理很少实施，尤其是因为很少收集或严格分析量化初始管理的短期和长期影响的高质量数据，从而削弱了未来政策的证据基础。这个项目为博士生提供了一个优秀的多学科培训机会，为英国最濒危的鸟类之一——红嘴鸦——开发一种典型的适应性管理模式。学生将严格评估一项关键管理干预的效果，补充喂养，应用于主要保护关注的苏格兰乌鸦种群。他们将与参与研究、政策和运营的政府保护机构工作人员，以及利益相关者和学者一起工作，利用得出的证据来决定未来的保护政策。因此，该项目将培养一名新的科学家来推动科学与政策的融合，通过适应性管理提高社会保护有价值野生动物种群的能力。提供补充食品是粮食有限的目标人群的一项关键管理工具。然而，尽管脊椎动物种群动态通常受到低亚成虫和成虫存活率的限制，但补充喂养制度通常侧重于提高繁殖成功率。尽管它有潜力成为关键的管理工具，但很少有实验或管理干预措施喂养亚成虫，或评估对亚成虫生存的短期影响。此外，通过改变亚成虫的分布、初次繁殖的年龄或随后的繁殖，这种喂养可能会产生深远的长期影响。然而，没有研究量化这种影响，因此也没有研究评估补充喂养对亚成虫种群增长率的总体影响。苏格兰剩余的ough人口仅限于Islay和Colonsay，由于生态旅游，文化意义和与低强度畜牧农业的联系，它们具有重要的保护关注和社会经济价值。苏格兰自然遗产（SNH）是苏格兰的法定保护机构，有义务采取适当的管理行动。对1983-2009年高质量人口统计数据的分析表明，种群规模的变化在很大程度上反映了亚成虫存活率的变化，2007-2009年期间非常高的亚成虫死亡率威胁着种群的生存能力。因此，SNH资助了一项补充喂养亚成人咳嗽和相关人口监测方案。在2010年7月至2018年4月期间，苏格兰饮食研究小组（SCSG）每天喂养Islay上的亚成虫。已经收集了详细的环观测和巢监测数据，以便对喂食和未喂食的个体的生存、扩散和繁殖进行量化。博士研究生将使用这个真正出色的多年数据集，使用1983-2019年的前-控制-影响（BDCI）分析，全面评估亚成虫补充喂养对人口统计学和人口增长率的影响。他们将与SNH和SCSG （CASE和项目合作伙伴）合作，利用他们的结果在苏格兰农村发展计划制定的更广泛的栖息地管理背景下决定未来的喂养政策。因此，他们将承担出色的科学工作，量化一种新型补充喂养的效果，并直接影响英国政府负责的一种稀有鸟类的保护政策和实践。