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Land-Use Changes at Nest Sites of the Little Owl (Athene noctua) in the South-Moravian Region of the Czech Republic
- Source :
- Journal of Landscape Ecology, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 19-34 (2018)
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Sciendo, 2018.
-
Abstract
- The Little Owl is currently endangered bird species of agricultural lowland areas in Central Europe. Nesting sites of the Little Owl are often old trees as well as buildings and quarries with suitable nesting cavities. The Little Owl has severely declined in a major part of Europe during the past decades. Information on habitat requirements of the Little Owl and data related to land-use changes at nest sites (covering both the breeding and foraging habitats) are needed for conservation programmes aimed at this bird species. Land-use changes in farmland rank among frequently discussed negative factors causing the population decline of the Little Owl. The aim of this study is to analyse land-use changes at nest sites of the Little Owl in the South-Moravian region (Czech Republic) between the years 1976/1977 and 2014. In both studied periods (1976/1977 and 2014), the most important land-use type within 500 m from the nest sites of the Little Owl was arable land (66.94 % – 62.25 %), followed by built-up areas (19.97 % –22.41 %), while the other land-use types made up less than 5 %. The proportion of the particular land-use type did not change significantly between the years 1976/1977 and 2014. The most important change in comparison with the period 1976/1977 was the decrease in the area of arable land by 4.69 % and that of orchards and gardens by 1.99 %, while the surface of built-up areas increased slightly by 2.45 % and that of meadows and pastures by 1.5 %. The analysis shows that at the known nest sites of the Little Owl in the South-Moravian region (Czech Republic), there were no significant changes in the proportion of the particular land-use types within 500 m from the nests between the years 1976/1977 and 2014. Based on these results, we can conclude that in comparison with the availability of nest sites, which seems to be the important limiting factor for the occurrence and population density of the Little Owl, land-use changes in study area were not very important factor influencing decline of the Little Owl.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Athene noctua
biology
gis analyse
Ecology
010607 zoology
Endangered species
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
biology.organism_classification
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Population density
nest site
Population decline
agricultural land
Geography
Habitat
Nest
birds
land-cover
Arable land
Little owl
QH540-549.5
Nature and Landscape Conservation
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 18054196
- Volume :
- 11
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Landscape Ecology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....9a2f35223fed6096f9739708f5d29540