title: Counteracting wetland overgrowth increases breeding and staging bird abundances.
abstract: Human actions have led to loss and degradation of wetlands, impairing their suitability as habitat especially for waterbirds. Such negative effects may be mitigated through habitat management. To date scientific evidence regarding the impacts of these actions remains scarce. We studied guild specific abundances of breeding and staging birds in response to habitat management on 15 Finnish wetlands. In this study management actions comprised several means of vegetation removal to thwart overgrowth. Management cost efficiency was assessed by examining the association between site-specific costs and bird abundances. Several bird guilds exhibited positive connections with both habitat management as well as with invested funds. Most importantly, however, red-listed species and species with special conservation concern as outlined by the EU showed positive correlations with management actions, underlining the conservation value of wetland management. The results suggest that grazing was especially efficient in restoring overgrown wetlands. As a whole this study makes it clear that wetland habitat management constitutes a feasible conservation tool. The marked association between invested funds and bird abundance may prove to be a valuable tool for decision makers when balancing costs and impact of conservation measures against one another.
authors.affiliation: The Helsinki Lab of Ornithology, Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 17, 00014 Helsinki University, Finland.|Department of Biology, University of Lund, Sölvegatan 37, 223 62 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Petteri
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lehikoinen
authors.affiliation: The Helsinki Lab of Ornithology, Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 17, 00014 Helsinki University, Finland.
authors.forename: Aleksi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lehikoinen
authors.affiliation: Finnish Environment Institute, P.O. Box 140, 00251 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Markku
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mikkola-Roos
authors.affiliation: Tvärminne Zoological Station, University of Helsinki, J.A. Palménin tie 260, 10900 Hanko, Finland.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jaatinen
mesh_terms: D025041:Animal Migration; D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D001717:Birds / Q000254:growth & development*; D001947:Breeding; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics; D005387:Finland; D005843:Geography; D053833:Wetlands