Metabird  
 

Identifying critical factors for the viability of spatially structured bird populations.
The purpose of the present project is to suggest general procedures for estimating the size of minimum viable bird populations. We will do this by integrating theorists and empiricists to develop applicable, fair, general models, and to confront those with high-quality data and experimentally tractable model systems. We will use the results of these analyses to derive guidelines for how the landscape should be structured to reduce the risk of extinction in spatially structured populations of threatened or endangered species.
 
The purpose with the project is to integrate data from long-term detailed demographic studies of spatially structured bird populations across Europe. By doing this we hope to:
  • give an empirical foundation for the development of realistic models for the dynamics of spatially structured bird populations through obtaining estimates of essential parameters (e.g. strength of density-dependence and environmental stochasticity)
  • examine which factors determine the scale of population synchrony of bird populations and
  • experimentally examine the validity of some critical assumptions in the model.

These models will be used

  • to quantitatively evaluate the consequences of habitat alterations (e.g. habitat fragmentation) in some particularly well-studied systems.

Based on these results we will try

  • to develop some general guidelines for management of spatially structured populations of endangered or threatened birds.
For more information about the Metabird project, click here.

Back to HOME.