Nord Maria, Forslund Pär
Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
PLoS One. 2015 Feb 25;10(2):e0118455. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118455. eCollection 2015.
Scientifically-based systematic conservation planning for reserve design requires knowledge of species richness patterns and how these are related to environmental gradients. In this study, we explore a large inventory of coastal breeding birds, in total 48 species, sampled in 4646 1 km2 squares which covered a large archipelago in the Baltic Sea on the east coast of Sweden. We analysed how species richness (α diversity) and community composition (β diversity) of two groups of coastal breeding birds (specialists, i.e. obligate coastal breeders; generalists, i.e. facultative coastal breeders) were affected by distance to open sea, land area, shoreline length and archipelago width. The total number of species per square increased with increasing shoreline length, but increasing land area counteracted this effect in specialists. The number of specialist bird species per square increased with decreasing distance to open sea, while the opposite was true for the generalists. Differences in community composition between squares were associated with differences in land area and distance to open sea, both when considering all species pooled and each group separately. Fourteen species were nationally red-listed, and showed similar relationships to the environmental gradients as did all species, specialists and generalists. We suggest that availability of suitable breeding habitats, and probably also proximity to feeding areas, explain much of the observed spatial distributions of coastal birds in this study. Our findings have important implications for systematic conservation planning of coastal breeding birds. In particular, we provide information on where coastal breeding birds occur and which environments they seem to prefer. Small land areas with long shorelines are highly valuable both in general and for red-listed species. Thus, such areas should be prioritized for protection against human disturbance and used by management in reserve selection.
基于科学的保护区设计系统保护规划需要了解物种丰富度模式以及这些模式与环境梯度的关系。在本研究中，我们探究了大量沿海繁殖鸟类的清单，总共48种，在4646个1平方千米的方格中进行采样，这些方格覆盖了瑞典东海岸波罗的海的一个大型群岛。我们分析了两组沿海繁殖鸟类（ specialists，即专性沿海繁殖者；generalists，即兼性沿海繁殖者）的物种丰富度（α多样性）和群落组成（β多样性）如何受到与公海的距离、陆地面积、海岸线长度和群岛宽度的影响。每个方格中的物种总数随着海岸线长度的增加而增加，但陆地面积的增加抵消了 specialists 中的这种影响。每个方格中专性鸟类物种的数量随着与公海距离的减小而增加，而 generalists 的情况则相反。当考虑所有物种汇总以及分别考虑每个组时，方格之间的群落组成差异与陆地面积和与公海距离的差异有关。14个物种被列入国家红色名录，并且它们与环境梯度的关系与所有物种、specialists 和 generalists 相似。我们认为，合适繁殖栖息地的可用性以及可能与觅食区的接近程度，解释了本研究中观察到的沿海鸟类的大部分空间分布。我们的研究结果对沿海繁殖鸟类的系统保护规划具有重要意义。特别是我们提供了沿海繁殖鸟类出现的地点以及它们似乎偏好的环境的信息。一般来说，尤其是对于列入红色名录的物种，拥有长海岸线的小陆地面积非常有价值。因此，在保护区选择中，此类区域应优先受到保护以免受人类干扰并供管理部门使用。
