Turning population ecology into conservation strategy: development of a Natural Care Scheme for red-billed choughs in Scotland

将种群生态学转化为保护战略：为苏格兰红嘴山鸦制定自然护理计划

• 批准号: NE/D001161/1
• 负责人: Pat Monaghan
• 金额: $ 8.72万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FD001161%2F1
• 关键词: Turning; population; ecology; into; conservation

Humans are increasingly modifying and exploiting natural habitats. Populations of wild animals are consequently declining. Given this situation, there is general agreement that we must invest resources in managing and conserving populations of economic and intrinsic value. This philosophy is underpinned by national and international legislation, and by activities of governmental and non-governmental organisations such as Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which has over a million members. In practice, management strategies for populations of conservation concern are often devised by individual managers, based on their own intuition or experience. While this approach can be successful, it can also be wasteful or harmful if resources are invested in practices that turn out to be ineffective or detrimental to key species. Consequently, a more 'scientific' approach to management is often advocated. Ideally, scientists who understand the fundamental processes that determine the size, structure and location of populations, should apply their expertise to populations of conservation concern. The resulting rigorous understanding of population ecology should be communicated to conservation managers, and used to devise efficient and effective management strategies. However, such science-based conservation is relatively rarely implemented. This is because scientific ecologists and conservation managers often have different priorities and constraints, meaning that management questions and scientific answers do not link up. To remedy this situation, we need to form partnerships between scientists with relevant expertise, and managers responsible for devising and implementing conservation strategies. Here, we propose to initiate such a partnership, between ourselves as scientists studying fundamental processes underlying population change, and conservation biologists in SNH & RSPB. We will work together to devise a science-based conservation strategy for a protected bird: the red-billed chough in Scotland. Choughs are rare in Britain and Europe, and are of considerable cultural significance. They are consequently the focus of widespread conservation action. However, despite this effort, no consensus programme of effective chough conservation has emerged. We have previously studied choughs on Islay, Scotland, in the context of pure population ecology. We therefore have a good basic understanding of the demographic processes that cause the size of this population to change. For example, we know that chough survival, particularly in younger age-classes, is one key factor controlling population size. We know that chough survival and breeding success vary among different areas of Islay, and that this variation influences the population's overall size and structure. However, several key questions pertaining to chough population ecology and its links with management approaches remain unanswered. Specifically, we do not know when or where chough mortality peaks, what causes survival and breeding success to vary among months, years or different areas or how management might mitigate or exacerbate this variation. In this project, we will use fieldwork and existing data to answer key outstanding questions relating chough population ecology to management practice. We will work on three British chough populations, on Islay, Colonsay and the Isle of Man. Long-term data on population size, survival and reproduction exist for these populations, due to ongoing work by local chough study groups. We will then work closely with conservation managers and biologists from SNH & RSPB to use our knowledge to devise a scientific conservation strategy (a 'Natural Care Scheme') for choughs. This work will be of immediate conservation value in Scotland and elsewhere, and we will ensure that our approach and results are disseminated widely among ecologists and conservationists.

人类越来越多地改变和利用自然栖息地。因此，野生动物的数量正在减少。鉴于这种情况，人们普遍同意，我们必须投入资源，管理和保护具有经济和内在价值的人口。这一理念得到了国家和国际立法以及政府和非政府组织的支持，如苏格兰自然遗产（SNH）和拥有100多万成员的皇家鸟类保护协会（RSPB）。在实践中，受保护种群的管理战略往往是由管理人员根据自己的直觉或经验制定的。虽然这种方法可以取得成功，但如果将资源投入到对关键物种无效或有害的做法中，也可能是浪费或有害的。因此，一个更“科学”的管理方法往往被提倡。理想的情况是，了解决定种群规模、结构和位置的基本过程的科学家应该将其专门知识应用于受保护的种群。由此产生的人口生态学的严格理解应传达给保护管理人员，并用于制定有效的管理策略。然而，这种以科学为基础的保护措施很少得到实施。这是因为科学生态学家和保护管理者往往有不同的优先事项和限制，这意味着管理问题和科学答案不连接起来。为了纠正这种情况，我们需要在具有相关专业知识的科学家和负责设计和实施保护战略的管理人员之间建立伙伴关系。在这里，我们建议发起这样一个伙伴关系，我们作为研究人口变化的基本过程的科学家，和SNH & RSPB的保护生物学家之间。我们将共同努力，为一种受保护的鸟类--苏格兰红嘴山鸦--设计一种基于科学的保护策略。Choughs在英国和欧洲很少见，具有相当的文化意义。因此，它们是广泛保护行动的焦点。然而，尽管有这些努力，有效的山鸦保护没有共识的方案已经出现。我们以前研究了山鸦在艾雷岛，苏格兰，在纯人口生态学的背景下。因此，我们对导致这一人口规模变化的人口过程有了很好的基本了解。例如，我们知道山鸦的存活率，特别是在较年轻的年龄组，是控制种群规模的一个关键因素。我们知道，山鸦的生存和繁殖成功率在艾雷岛的不同地区有所不同，这种变化影响了种群的整体规模和结构。然而，几个关键问题有关山鸦种群生态学及其与管理方法的联系仍然没有答案。具体来说，我们不知道山鸦死亡率在何时何地达到峰值，是什么原因导致生存和繁殖成功在几个月、几年或不同地区之间变化，或者管理如何减轻或加剧这种变化。在这个项目中，我们将使用实地调查和现有的数据来回答关键的悬而未决的问题，有关山鸦种群生态管理实践。我们将研究三个英国山鸦种群，在艾莱岛，科隆赛岛和马恩岛。由于当地山鸦研究小组正在进行的工作，这些种群的种群规模，生存和繁殖的长期数据存在。然后，我们将与SNH和RSPB的保护经理和生物学家密切合作，利用我们的知识为山鸦制定科学的保护策略（“自然保护计划”）。这项工作将在苏格兰和其他地方具有直接的保护价值，我们将确保我们的方法和结果在生态学家和保护主义者中广泛传播。