Farina Almo, James Philip
Department of Pure and Applied Sciences, Urbino University, Urbino, Italy.
School of Science, Engineering and Environment, University of Salford, Salford, UK.
Biosemiotics. 2023;16(1):61-84. doi: 10.1007/s12304-023-09522-1. Epub 2023 Mar 2.
In a development of the ecosemiotic vivo-scape concept, a 'safety eco-field' is proposed as a model of a species response to the safety of its environment. The safety eco-field is based on the ecosemiotic approach which considers environmental safety as a resource sought and chosen by individuals to counter predatory pressure. To test the relative safety of different locations within a landscape, 66 bird feeders (BF) were deployed in a regular 15 × 15 m grid in a rural area, surrounded by shrubs, small trees, hedgerows, and buildings. On each of 48 days in November 2021 and February and March 2022, dried mealworms were placed on each BF and counts of larvae at each BF were made at noon and dusk. The European robin () and the great tit () were the most regular visitors to the BFs. Land cover at each BF was recorded. Bird behaviour at the BFs was noted from direct video recordings of the birds at nine selected BFs, totalling 32 daily sessions in March. The different behaviours of the European robin and the great tit were observable. The safety eco-field changed according to the month and the time of day. The distance of the BF from the woodland edges seemed to be important only in the morning. In the afternoon, BFs that were more distant from the woodland edges received the highest number of visits. Weather conditions were found to influence the number of mealworms removed, but this requires further investigation. A significant relationship between land cover and the number of mealworm larvae removed from the BFs was observed. Within the grid of BF, three regions were distinguishable which were related to land cover in the safety eco-field process. The experimental framework confirms the adequacy, at least for birds that have cryptic predators, to map the landscape as a proxy of safety resource. From the video recordings it was noted that the European robin visits were distributed throughout the day without apparent temporal preferences, while the great tit visits were concentrated in the central part of the day. This result has the limitation of the short period of observation (March) and should be extended to the entire period of the experiment to eventually capture seasonal variation. The experimental evidence obtained confirms that the ecosemiotic-based models of safety eco-field are an efficient approach to explain bird feeding preferences and behaviours.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12304-023-09522-1.
在生态符号学的活体景观概念的发展过程中，提出了一种“安全生态场”作为物种对其环境安全性反应的模型。安全生态场基于生态符号学方法，该方法将环境安全视为个体为应对捕食压力而寻求和选择的一种资源。为了测试景观中不同位置的相对安全性，在一个农村地区以规则的15×15米网格部署了66个鸟类喂食器（BF），周围环绕着灌木、小树、树篱和建筑物。在2021年11月以及2022年2月和3月的48天中的每一天，将干黄粉虫放置在每个BF上，并在中午和黄昏时统计每个BF处的幼虫数量。欧洲知更鸟（Erithacus rubecula）和大山雀（Parus major）是BF最常光顾的鸟类。记录了每个BF处的土地覆盖情况。从9个选定BF处鸟类的直接视频记录中观察BF处的鸟类行为，在3月总计有32个每日时段。欧洲知更鸟和大山雀的不同行为是可观察到的。安全生态场根据月份和一天中的时间而变化。BF距林地边缘的距离似乎仅在早晨很重要。在下午，距离林地边缘较远的BF收到的访问次数最多。发现天气条件会影响被移除的黄粉虫数量，但这需要进一步研究。观察到土地覆盖与从BF移除的黄粉虫幼虫数量之间存在显著关系。在BF网格内，可以区分出与安全生态场过程中的土地覆盖相关的三个区域。实验框架证实，至少对于有隐蔽捕食者的鸟类来说，将景观映射为安全资源的代理是足够的。从视频记录中注意到，欧洲知更鸟的访问在一天中分布均匀，没有明显的时间偏好，而大山雀的访问集中在一天的中部。这一结果存在观察期短（3月）的局限性，应扩展到整个实验期，以最终捕捉季节变化。获得的实验证据证实，基于生态符号学的安全生态场模型是解释鸟类取食偏好和行为的有效方法。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s12304-023-09522-1获取 的补充材料。
