Population trends of Western Siberian migratory songbirds

Basic data for this project

Description

Global biodiversity losses are dramatic and predicted to continue. Biodiversity drives ecosystem stability and influences human wellbeing. Efficient biodiversity conservation is hampered by severe knowledge bias towards more developed parts of the earth. In this projectwe study the migration ecology of Asian land birds. Birds, especially migratory species, are excellent indicators of the state of our planet, as they are mobile and susceptible to change. The Asian migration system is poorly understood, although it supports the greatest diversity and abundance of migratory birds, and experiences the strongest human pressure of any global flyway. Land birds are especially underrepresented in research.We will, for the first time, quantify population trends, map migration routes and predict the year-round distribution of Asian land birds. We will analyze land-use/land-cover change in important breeding, stopover and wintering regions and assess the extent of legal and illegal hunting along the Asian flyways. We will use the outcomes of these analyses to understand the differential impacts of land-use change and persecution on population trends, and develop a species vulnerability index. We will quantify migratory connectivity which governs the resilience to environmental change, including the first global assessment of migratory connectivity in an established model species, the Eurasian Cuckoo. We will finally assess and suggest strategies to extend and improve the current protected area systems in Asia to preserve the diversity of migratory birds. We will also methodologically advance conservation science and movement ecology, as we will evaluate the suitability of citizen science databases and ringing archives to contribute to spatial analyses of land bird migration.