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At the end of 2023, we attended the second meeting of the Steppe Bird Research Group (GIAE) which was held at the Autonomous University of Madrid. In the talk program, one about nest boxes. Another nest box study. In general, animal ecology research is observational, and the nest box is an opportunity for experimental study. That's why so many studios with nest boxes. In principle, an uninteresting presentation. But no. Alejandro Corregidor, a researcher at the University of Padua, presented a research paper, published in Global Change Biology, very suggestive and with an alarming meaning (and with good reason): artificial nests are furnaces for the primilla kestrel. The chickens are cooked inside. And in all of them; made of wood, cement, or any other material. I asked Alejandro why then artificial nests have made it easier to establish many colonies of primrose kestrels. And he answered yes, before, yes, but no longer. And why? Because of climate change; that future that has come to us ahead of time. High temperature affects the reproductive success of primilla during the nesting phases: egg hatching and chicken development. And it's not because of the average temperature but because of extreme heat events, heat waves.
Predictive models indicate that not only will the average temperature increase, but also the frequency, duration and intensity of heat waves. Animals adapt (with limits, obviously) to dampen the physiological effect of extreme heat: for example, seasonal migration to the north or in height or the use of landscape elements to regulate body temperature. But the chickens don't, they stay in the nest. And now the stay in the nest is a critical period: the effect of heat waves is lethal or almost lethal since the egg hatches and during the development of the chickens. For example, when the temperature in the nest exceeds 44, more than 50% of the eggs do not hatch. One warning, another: climate change, heat waves, threaten even species adapted to high temperatures.
The installation of artificial nests is a measure that is included, almost by default, in environmental impact studies to compensate for the impact of renewable energy projects. Easy and inexpensive to fill. But what if artificial nests now, in a climate change scenario, worked as an ecological trap? Rather than compensating, it would ease the impact. Ecological trap is a fundamental concept in conservation biology and ecological restoration. It is the result of selecting a low-quality habitat, which affects survival and reproductive success. An ecological trap is a high-quality habitat only in appearance (that's why it is selected) because the effect is negative (it usually results in the extinction of a local population). Choosing the wrong thing because it looks good: for example, an artificial nest that will then get so hot until the setup fails. The ecological trap is common in changing, unstable landscapes. Global change, therefore, sets ecological traps. We go locally, scientific evidence drives us to rethink artificial nests for birds: to adapt the design and installation to mitigate the effect of climate change, especially heat waves.
At Ideas MedioAmbiental, we design specific measures aimed at compensating for the residual impact of renewable energy projects, photovoltaic solar plants and wind farms. We used the knife, not from Albacete, but from Ockham to concentrate compensation on what is critical and to eliminate a generalist filling with no effect (for example, swamps without a rabbit population) and even negative (for example, shelters for bats in an area with a high density of wind turbines). And we always evaluate the correspondence between quality and habitat selection so as not to prepare an ecological trap.
References
Battin J. 2004. When good animals love bad habitats: ecological traps and the conservation of animal populations. Conservation Biology 18:1482-1491.
Corregidor‐Castro A, Morinay J, McKinlay SE., Ramellini S, Assandri G, Bazzi G, Glavaschi A, De Capua EL, Grapputo A, Romanò A, Morganti M, Cecere JG, Pilastro A, & Rubolini D. 2023. Experimental nest cooling reveals dramatic effects of heatwaves on reproduction in a Mediterranean bird of prey. Global Change Biology 29:5552-5567
Cover photo taken by Xurxo Piñeiro
Iván Salgado, Biodiversity
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