Dataset Information

Impact of land cover and landfills on the breeding effect and nest occupancy of the white stork in Poland.

ABSTRACT: Food wastes are among the factors with the greatest effects on animal populations. The white stork is among bird species that clearly profit from feeding at landfills, at least in Western Europe and North Africa. However, the rate and the consequences of this feeding are still unknown in the Central-Eastern European population, which differs from the western population not only in terms of migration routes but also in the greater availability of suitable natural breeding habitats due to less intensified agriculture. The aim of the study was to describe the use of landfills and its consequences in terms of probability of nest occupation and breeding effects in different regions of Poland. Although the most important factors influencing nest-site selection and breeding effect are still habitat quality and weather conditions, distance to landfills is important in selection of nest sites. White storks use landfills most intensively late in the breeding season, independently of the density of breeding pairs. The results suggest that the use of landfills is not currently essential in the Central-Eastern European population of the white stork, does not affect breeding effect, and may be more frequent in non-breeders. However, this phenomenon is still developing and requires continuous monitoring.

SUBMITTER: Bialas JT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8012577 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Impact of land cover and landfills on the breeding effect and nest occupancy of the white stork in Poland.

Bialas Joanna T JT Dylewski Łukasz Ł Dylik Andrzej A Janiszewski Tomasz T Kaługa Ireneusz I Królak Tomek T Kruszyk Robert R Pawlukojć Krzysztof K Pestka Zuzanna Z Polakowski Michał M Zbyryt Adam A Tobolka Marcin M

Scientific reports 20210331 1

Food wastes are among the factors with the greatest effects on animal populations. The white stork is among bird species that clearly profit from feeding at landfills, at least in Western Europe and North Africa. However, the rate and the consequences of this feeding are still unknown in the Central-Eastern European population, which differs from the western population not only in terms of migration routes but also in the greater availability of suitable natural breeding habitats due to less int ...[more]

PMID: 33790344

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Project description:BackgroundConnections between habitats are key to a full understanding of anthropic impacts on ecosystems. Freshwater habitats are especially biodiverse, yet depend on exchange with terrestrial habitats. White storks (Ciconia ciconia) are widespread opportunists that often forage in landfills and then visit wetlands, among other habitats. It is well known that white storks ingest contaminants at landfills (such as plastics and antibiotic resistant bacteria), which can be then deposited in other habitats through their faeces and regurgitated pellets.MethodsWe characterized the role of white storks in habitat connectivity by analyzing GPS data from populations breeding in Germany and wintering from Spain to Morocco. We overlaid GPS tracks on a land-use surface to construct a spatially-explicit network in which nodes were sites, and links were direct flights. We then calculated centrality metrics, identified spatial modules, and quantified overall connections between habitat types. For regional networks in southern Spain and northern Morocco, we built Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) to explain network topologies as a response to node habitat.ResultsFor Spain and Morocco combined, we built a directed spatial network with 114 nodes and 370 valued links. Landfills were the habitat type most connected to others, as measured by direct flights. The relevance of landfills was confirmed in both ERGMs, with significant positive effects of this habitat as a source of flights. In the ERGM for southern Spain, we found significant positive effects of rice fields and salines (solar saltworks) as sinks for flights. By contrast, in the ERGM for northern Morocco, we found a significant positive effect of marshes as a sink for flights.ConclusionsThese results illustrate how white storks connect landfills with terrestrial and aquatic habitats, some of which are managed for food production. We identified specific interconnected habitat patches across Spain and Morocco that could be used for further studies on biovectoring of pollutants, pathogens and other propagules.

Project description:Species distribution models (SDMs) are effective tools for wildlife conservation and management, as they employ the quantification of habitat suitability and environmental niches to evaluate the patterns of species distribution. The utilization of SDMs at various scales in a hierarchical approach can provide additional and complementary information, significantly improving decision-making in local wildlife conservation initiatives. In this study, we considered the appropriate spatial scale and data resolution to execute species distribution modeling, as these factors greatly influence the modeling procedures. We developed SDMs for wintering black storks at both the regional and local scales. At the regional scale, we used climatic and climate-driven land use/land cover (LULC) variables, along with wintering occurrence points, to develop models for mainland China. At the local scale, we used local environmental variables and locally gathered wintering site data to develop models for Shaanxi province. The predictions from both the regional and local models were then combined at the provincial level by overlapping suitable areas based on climatic and local conditions. We compared and evaluated the resulting predictions using seven statistical metrics. The national models provide information on the appropriate climatic conditions for the black stork during the wintering period throughout China, while the provincial SDMs capture the important local ecological factors that influence the suitability of habitats at a finer scale. As anticipated, the national SDMs predict a larger extent of suitable areas compared to the provincial SDMs. The hierarchical prediction approach is considered trustworthy and, on average, yields better outcomes than non-hierarchical methods. Our findings indicate that human-driven LULC changes have a significant and immediate impact on the wintering habitat of the black stork. However, the effects of climate change seem to be reducing the severity of this impact. The majority of suitable wintering habitats lie outside the boundaries of protected areas, highlighting the need for future conservation and management efforts to prioritize addressing these conservation gaps and focusing on the protection of climate refuges.

Dataset Information

Impact of land cover and landfills on the breeding effect and nest occupancy of the white stork in Poland.

Publications

Impact of land cover and landfills on the breeding effect and nest occupancy of the white stork in Poland.

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