Abstract
AbstractIn the absence of comprehensive survey data this study used citizen science bird counts, extracted from the Atlas of Living Australia, to assess which species benefit most from protected areas. This was done by fitting temporal models using the Integrated Laplace Approximation (INLA) method.The trends for five resident shorebird species were compared to the Australian Pied Oystercatcher, with significantly steeper upward trends identified for the Black-fronted Dotterel, Red-capped Dotterel and Red-kneed Dotterel. Steeper upward trends were observed in protected than unprotected areas for the Black-fronted Dotterel, Masked Lapwing and Red-kneed Dotterel.This work suggests that, with some limitations, statistical models can be used with citizen science data for monitoring the persistence of resident shorebirds and for investigating factors that are impacting these data. The results for the Dotterel species in protected areas are particularly encouraging.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Reference42 articles.
1. Responses of global waterbird populations to climate change vary with latitude;Nature Climate Change,2020
2. Atlas of Living Australia. (2021). Home. [online] Available at: https://www.ala.org.au/ [Accessed 16 September. 2020].
3. Birdlife Australia. (2020). Birdlife Australia-bird-profile | Birdlife Australia. [online] Available at: https://birdlife.org.au/bird-profile [Accessed 16 November. 2020].
4. Bonney, R. E. , Dhondt, A. (1997). FeederWatch: An example of a student–scientist partnership. In K. Cohen (Ed.), ‘Internet links for science education: Student-science partnerships’. New York: Plenum Press.
5. Brown K. Root (2010). Western Port Ramsar Wetland Ecological Character Description. Report prepared for the Department of Environment, Water, Populations and Communities (Canberra).