Impact of military activities on bird species considered to benefit from disturbances: an example from an active military training area in Latvia

Abstract

We surveyed the military training area Adazi to evaluate the effects of disturbance caused by military activities on the abundance of protected bird species considered to benefit from disturbances at the site (SCBD). We collected data on the abundance of the selected bird species in a set of representative sample plots during three repeated surveys. In each plot we mapped areas affected by different visually detectable disturbances of military origin and areas covered by EU protected habitat types. Overall abundance and richness of SCBD were calculated for each of the surveyed squares. Generalised linear modelling was used to relate the recorded abundance of each species, and the overall abundance and richness of SCBD, with the available habitat and military disturbance parameters. We evaluated a set of competitive models to identify the most important explanatory variables. The modelling results imply clear positive effects of most of the military activities on the analysed species as well as overall species richness.