Is research effort associated with the conservation status of European bird species?

Hj Murray,Dr Williams,Ej Green,Ij Burfield,L Brooke M De

doi:10.3354/esr00656

Abstract

Research effort is critical to the success of interventions which aim to reduce de clines in biodiversity and so can be considered as a conservation resource. European bird species are among the best studied and most popular groups of animals, yet 1 in 10 are currently globally threatened or near threatened, and many have been prioritised by various multilateral environmental agreements. To investigate how research effort is directed towards European bird species, and in particular whether conservation listing prompts additional research, the number of outputs from a Web of Science search related to conservation was used to develop an index of research effort for each species. This index was then analysed against a set of population, morphological, ecological and socioeconomic parameters collated from the literature, plus measures of threat level. A series of generalised linear models revealed that the most important factors in explaining the distribution of research effort amongst European bird species included ‘European population size’, ‘potential research investment’ and ‘habitat type’, which were linked to ease of study. Also important were the species’ generation length, 1990−2000 European population trend and migration status. Research effort was not well targeted with respect to either European or global threat status, and there was little support for the suggestion that inclusion of species in legislative instruments such as Annex I of the EU Birds Directive might stimulate research. Research effort must become better prioritised to achieve the greatest net conservation benefit.

Highlights

Across the world, biodiversity is in decline and the ecological impact of humanity is increasing (WWF 2012)
This study advances the field by including some candidate variables that have not been analysed by previous authors; for example, different measures of threat were considered alongside global IUCN Red List status
European population trend have a moderately high relative importance, whereas variables linked to the threat status of species have a low relative importance and do not show a significant association with research effort in univariate statistical tests

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Biodiversity is in decline and the ecological impact of humanity is increasing (WWF 2012). Morphological, ecological and socioeconomic parameters chosen to reflect different potential influences upon the distribution of research effort across species Some variables, such as European threat status, were expected to have an impact because they identify those species most in need of conservation action, whereas others, such as body mass, were hypothesised to be important because they influence the ease with which studies can be carried out. This study advances the field by including some candidate variables that have not been analysed by previous authors; for example, different measures of threat were considered alongside global IUCN Red List status It uses an index of research effort which takes into account the impact each paper may have upon the scientific community by considering the year of publication and the impact factor of the journal. Our focus is on factors, especially conservation status, that may influence research effort, a contrast to previous studies (e.g. Restani & Marzluff 2002, Male & Bean 2005) which have investigated how conservation funds are distributed among threatened species

METHODS

RESULTS

Findings

DISCUSSION