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BTO Research
Professional and Consultancy Services
RESEARCH INTO BIRDS AND HABITATS
The Trust undertakes a considerable amount of research on the interactions
between birds and their habitats, notably in respect of land use change.
Landscape Studies and Farmland
BTO has a long history of conducting research on farmland birds and their
habitat requirements. BTO data have been at the forefront of highlighting
recent declines in farmland birds and our Terrestrial Ecology Units has
particular expertise in determining the responses of birds to aspects
of agricultural practices.
Examples of recent and current, funded by Ministry
of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, includes:
- The effect of organic farming regimes on breeding and winter bird
populations undertaken jointly with IACR-Rothamsted.
- Factors influencing biodiversity within organic and conventional
systems or arable farming with Institute of Terrestrial Ecology
and University of Oxford.
- Agronomic and environmental evaluation of set-aside under the EC
Arable Area Payments Scheme with Institute of Terrestrial Ecology
and ADAS.
- Changes in lowland grassland management: effects on invertebrates
and birds with CABI BioScience and Institute of Grassland and Environmental
Research.
- New and modified approaches to undersowing and ley management for
enhancement on arable land with CABI BioScience and Institute of
Grassland and Environmental Research.
Woodlands and Scrub
BTO’s work on birds in woodland and scrub is designed to identify what
factors determine the distribution and abundance of birds within woodland,
particularly in respect of how woodland is managed. Also BTO is documenting
successional changes in birds of scrub habitats and effects of scrub management
on birds.
 Some
examples of work undertaken in this area include:
- Avian Biodiversity in Plantation Forests. Contribution to the
Biodiversity Research Programme of the Forestry Authority by collecting
baseline information on avian biodiversity in forest stands of different
ages and species composition, enabling a comparison to be made of their
songbird communities during the breeding season.
- Farm Woods A project undertaken in collaboration with
Cranfield University to investigate the environmental benefits of farm
woodlands planted under the Farm Woodland Scheme and the Farm Woodland
Premium Scheme. Undertaken for MAFF.
- Woodland Management Systems. Comparisons have been made of
bird populations associated with different systems in both commercial
and semi-natural woodland with a major emphasis on responses of birds
to coppicing with the aim of providing conserva tion bodies with information
on how to optimise coppice management for birds. Undertaken for BTO/JNCC
partnership.
- Grazing. Work is being undertaken to examine the effects of
deer grazing on coppice and has been conducted on livestock grazing
in upland birch and lowland high forest. (JNCC/CCW)
- Scrub Expansion in the Uplands. Between 1996 and 1998, BTO
undertook work on the responses of birds to the development of scrub
and woodland at several locations in the central and eastern Highlands
for Scottish Natural Heritage.
Wetland
Our Wetland & Coastal Ecology Unit was established to co-ordinate
and develop our research expertise in all aspects of estuarine and wetland
ecology.
Surveys and research projects undertaken under the WeBS umbrella include
- WeBS Low
Tide Counts Monthly low tide counts of waders and wildfowl
on a rolling programme of selected estuaries around Britain
- Survey of Non-estuarine Coastal Waterfowl A survey of non-breeding
coastal populations of waterfowl not covered by the ongoing WeBS Core
Count scheme
- Survey of Little Egret Roosts A study to estimate the current
UK population of Little Egret from counts at night-time roost sites
and to compare this with information collected routinely from WeBS Core
Counts
- Regional Indexing of Waterfowl Numbers have been implemented
and Alert Systems for warning of possible serious population
declines are being developed.
- Wader Numbers and Water Quality An investigation into the relationship
between number of waders on site and the quality of the water.
- Carrying Capacity A study on the concept of maximum
numbers on estuaries using Grey Plover as an example.
Other research projects and impact assessment work include:
- Cardiff Bay Barrage. Long-term studies have increased understanding
of the phenology of waterbird recovery from disturbance due to construction
work.
- Collaborative work with Institute of Terrestrial Ecology has
developed models which allow estuarine waterfowl densities to be predicted
country-wide from a suite of environmental variables. These models
can be used to predict The likely impact of habitat changes due to natural
factors, global climate change or human developments of waterfowl populations.
An adapted form of these models is being used as part of the Modelling
Natural Resource Responses to Climatic Change (MONARCH) project to predict
wader and wildfowl populations on a range of estuaries for different scenarios
of sea-level rise.
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