Can gaps in our knowledge about the occurrence and activity of UK bats be addressed through the use of a citizen science approach? Can we use such an approach to support effective decision-making during the planning process, with opportunity and risk maps that can guide planning decisions and the location of mitigation measures?

GPS tracking is a valuable tool for increasing our understanding of bird behaviour. In this study, researchers used tracking technology to investigate movements of Amber-listed Lesser Black-backed Gulls around offshore wind farms. Their results reveal a detailed picture of both avoidance of and attraction towards turbines in this species, which may be used to inform future collision risk assessments.

New research involving BTO has confirmed the theory the migratory birds use different strategies at different points on their migratory journeys, speeding up when passing through inhospitable regions and slowing down where conditions are more favourable. Using GPS and data loggers, researchers tracked Nightjars breeding in the UK, Belgium and Mongolia as they travelled to their wintering grounds. Birds were found to adopt a 'rush' tactic when passing through ecological barriers, such as the Saharan and Arabian Deserts. This tactic involved a high daily travel speed and flight altitude, and a high migration probability at dusk and at night. By contrast, in semi-open, hospitable habitats, birds travelled at lower speeds and had a lower migration probability at dusk. The likely reflected birds slowing down to forage and refuel before the rest of their journey.

New collaborative BTO research has used GPS to provide insights into the movements and habitat needs of Herring Gulls outside the breeding season. Researcher fixed GPS tags to 20 Herring Gulls breeding at four colonies in southwest Scotland (Oronsay, Islay, Pladda and Lady Isle) and one colony in northwest England (Walney) to better understand this Red-listed species of conservation concern. During the non-breeding season, Herring Gulls used a range of habitats as would be expected for this opportunistic generalist species, that can survive on a wide variety of different foods. However, habitats were not used randomly based on their availability, with habitat selection differing between geographical regions and between individuals in the same region. Although Herring Gulls showed a preference for intertidal habitat in all regions, a mix of forging habitats, including grassland and farmland, were important over the course of the non-breeding season. Although several individuals stayed close to their breeding colony, most migrated in a south-easterly direction (up to 190 km from their colony) and kept moving to different areas through the non-breeding season. Individuals also differed in the habitats they selected, with moderate habitat specialisation, indicating that resource use was flexible across time and space. This level of habitat and spatial segregation, as well as each individual gull’s distribution over a broad range of habitats and space, may help reduce competition for limited resources and buffer populations from localised anthropogenic pressures (for example, coastal development) during the non-breeding season. The results also highlight that the habitat preferences and movement patterns of generalist species cannot in fact be generalised, even between nearby regions, which has implications for appropriate regional-specific spatial planning and conservation management.

In this 'practitioner's perspective', BTO joins other organisations to consider how to tighten the frameworks used for conservation to improve outcomes.

Climate change ‘adaptations’ describe any actions which address the impacts of our changing climate. These adaptations can be focussed on human populations and infrastructure, with measures such as flood defence or the development of drought-tolerant crops, or on the natural environment, through special management of habitats and species. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, which was published this week, emphasises the growing need to consider how we should adapt to climate change, but there has been virtually no evaluation of adaptation measures for the natural environment. A new collaborative publication led by BTO aims to identify some of the key challenges of monitoring climate change adaptation, and to combat these with a framework for measuring adaptation success. This framework can be used by conservation organisations, governments and other decision-makers to learn from our current adaptation measures and improve the effectiveness of future action. The challenge of measuring adaptation success The challenge of measuring adaptation success The first challenge of measuring adaptation success is its very definition. Different stakeholders may disagree about what constitutes ‘success’, and actions which are considered successful now may not be sufficient in the future given the increasing severity of climate change. The second challenge is in attributing changes in the natural environment to a particular cause, whether that is climate change or adaptation measures in conservation work. Ecological systems are highly complex and it is not always possible to pin down a single driver for the changes we see. Finally, measuring the success of climate change adaptation requires long-term and large-scale monitoring. This can be challenging to fund, but as we know at BTO, citizen science data can be a crucial resource when tracking climate change impacts. Using an indicator framework to measure adaptation success Developing indicators for adaptation allows us to track success at different stages of climate change adaptation. At the earliest stage, we can track ‘enabling conditions’ like resources for conservation and the existence of monitoring schemes. . These indicators are not ultimate objectives of adaptation, but pave the way for further action. They also capture the most rapid changes which occur as a result of new adaptation policies. We can then begin to track ‘activity measures’, which describe the extent of resulting adaptation actions such as habitat creation or species management. These actions typically aim to manage the natural world in a way that allows species and ecosystems to persist in a changing climate. Assessing the ecological responses to these activities shows us whether we are on the right track in terms of the adaptation strategies we have put in place. ‘Results-based’ indicators then measure adaptation success in the context of climate change. Successful adaptation actions will alter species’ responses to climate change, either by reducing negative impacts such as preventing extinctions of cold-adapted species, or promoting positive responses such as the range expansion of habitat specialists of conservation concern. Ultimately, successful climate change adaptation is about species’ persistence, building and maintaining ecological integrity and the provision of ecosystem service in a changing climate. The authors hope that this paper will stimulate the development of much-needed indicators, improve the evidence base for successful climate change adaptation, and inform more successful conservation action in the face of climate change in the future.

Climate change is impacting wild populations, but its relative importance compared to other causes of change is still unclear. Many studies assume that changes in traits primarily reflect effects of climate change, but this assumption is rarely tested. This paper uses datasets from across Europe, including the BTO's Nest Record Scheme, to show that in European birds global warming was likely the single most important contributor to temporal trends in laying date, body condition, and offspring number. However, non-temperature factors were also important and acted in the same direction, implying that attributing temporal trends solely to rising temperatures overestimates the impact of climate warming. Differences among species in the amount of trait change were predominantly determined by these nontemperature effects, suggesting that species differences are not due to variation in sensitivity to temperature.