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Relatively safe? Family links could predict birds at risk
A family tree of British birds has been drawn up which scientists say will help to predict which species will decline. Grace Hammond reports.
A new complete evolutionary "family tree" showing how all British bird species are related to each other may provide clues about which ones are at risk of population decline, according to its authors.
Comparing the new family tree with existing lists of endangered bird species, author Dr Gavin Thomas from the Centre for Population Biology at Imperial College London found that British birds suffering population decline were clustered close together on the same branches of the family tree.
This suggests that the family tree, or "phylogeny", could be used to predict which species are at risk of decline in the future. Bird species which are not experiencing decline at the moment, but which sit close to those whose population is already in decline may be at risk next.
This is because closely-related species on the family tree share physical traits, says Dr Thomas. Some of these characteristics, such as low reproductive rates or specific habitat requirements, may render them less able to cope with climate change or depletion of their habitat and make them exceptionally vulnerable.
There are 572 species of bird found in Britain, and almost half are considered resident, migrant breeders or wintering birds.
Dr Thomas's research covers more than 93 per cent of these British birds.
"This study threw up some interesting results," says Dr Thomas. "Numbers of the common blackbird are currently not perceived as threatened at all, however it has several close relatives, including the song thrush, that are experiencing severe levels of population decline. This could mean that populations of blackbirds in
the UK are at risk of declining in the future."
Dr Thomas, whose research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, suggests that the family tree can be an early warning for conservationists, because if
other species on the same branch of the tree as already-endangered birds share traits then, they too may be at risk.
"Pulling together the family tree was an important task, as
we now have a clearer insight than ever before into the evolutionary relationships of birds in Britain. The data clearly shows a link between closely related birds and chances of population decline although they (conservationists) will always need to take other factors into account."
Examples of birds which may be at risk of population decline in the future, based on their close relationship to birds already on the endangered list include the greenfinch – not currently in danger, but closely related to the linnet and bullfinch which are experiencing severe levels of decline, and the ptarmigan – which is closely related to the black grouse and grey partridge which are also in rapid decline.
Woodland bird populations are doing better in the north than the south of the country, say the Royal Society For the Protection of Birds.
But much-loved species currently under threat in Yorkshire include the common bunting, cuckoo, yellowhammer, lapwing and curlew.
You might have expected that the RSPB would welcome Dr Thomas's bird family tree with open arms, as an additional aid to conservation planning. But no, the society says his "early warning system" adds nothing to what is already revealed by existing methods of monitoring bird populations.
"It's an interesting concept that he has devised, but we believe we can accurately measure population decline already, so we don't need a proxy method of doing it," says spokesman Graham Madge.
"It's kind of interesting but doesn't actually help us in conservation issues right now. Also, you can look at various closely-related pairs of birds, such as the collared dove and the turtle dove, where what Dr Thomas describes is not going on at all, and they are doing completely different things.
"The collared dove population has exploded across the UK since it first bred in Norfolk in the 1950s, yet the turtle dove population has declined by 83 per cent in the period from 1970 to 2005.
"What this research does is simply give us another way of watching the ship go down, when what we've got to do is to stop it sinking."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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