Potential negative effects of construction of a high-mountain ski resort in the High Tatras, Slovakia, on breeding bird assemblages

AbstractUntil recently animals inhabiting mountain areas were relatively free from disturbance by people but they are now coming under increasing pressure. Tourism, especially that involving large numbers of people, is having an ever more detrimental effect on the natural resources of high mountains, even in protected areas. We analyse the effect of tourist pressure on the population of the Tatra chamoisRupicapra rupicapra tatrica, which inhabits the strictly protected high-altitude habitats of the Tatra mountains (Carpathians, Poland). The Kasprowy Wierch cable car system, in operation since 1936, was modernized in 2007; as a consequence 50% more people can now be carried into the chamois’ habitat. The effect of this sudden increase in tourist pressure has been to reduce the size of herds (3.9 vs 5.3 individuals) and to increase the distance between the animals and the cable car station (1,664.0 vs 693.0 m), the cable car infrastructure (1,415.0 vs 467.8 m) and adjacent ski-lifts and ski pistes (1,214.2 vs 494.3 m). The distance to the marked hiking trails has not changed, however. Following the modernization of the cable cars, larger herds of chamois have been seen at greater distances from the tourist infrastructure. Our results indicate the adverse impact of this mass tourism. Human activities in high-mountain ecosystems need to have due consideration for the requirements of wild species, and the number of visitors needs to be controlled.

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Effects of growth stage and tree species composition on breeding bird assemblages of plantation forests

Bird Study ◽

10.1080/00063650609461437 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 53 (3) ◽

pp. 225-236 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

Mark W. Wilson ◽

Josephine Pithon ◽

Tom Gittings ◽

Tom C. Kelly ◽

Paul S. Giller ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Composition ◽

Tree Species ◽

Growth Stage ◽

Breeding Bird ◽

Tree Species Composition ◽

Bird Assemblages ◽

Plantation Forests

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Breeding Bird Assemblages in the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River Recreation Area, New Mexico

The Southwestern Naturalist ◽

10.2307/3671507 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 34 (4) ◽

pp. 487 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Dale W. Stahlecker ◽

Patricia L. Kennedy ◽

Anne C. Cully ◽

Charles B. Kuykendall

Keyword(s):

New Mexico ◽

Rio Grande ◽

Breeding Bird ◽

Bird Assemblages ◽

Recreation Area ◽

River Recreation

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Relations between body size, abundance and taxonomy of birds wintering in Britain and Ireland

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.1994.0016 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 343 (1304) ◽

pp. 135-144 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Keyword(s):

Body Size ◽

The Novel ◽

Breeding Bird ◽

Bird Abundance ◽

Bird Assemblages ◽

Colonizing Species ◽

Species Abundances ◽

Bird Fauna ◽

Bird Taxonomy ◽

Taxonomic Isolation

We examine the relation between body size, abundance, and taxonomy in the wintering bird assemblages in Britain and Ireland. The regression slope of abundance on body size across species in both assemblages is not significantly different from that predicted by an ‘energetic equivalence rule’, but the proportion of the variance in abundance explained by body size is very low. Previous work on breeding bird assemblages has found the novel relation that the correlation between size and abundance across species within a tribe is itself positively correlated with the degree of taxonomic isolation of the tribe from other tribes in the bird fauna. We show that the same relation holds within bird tribes in the two wintering assemblages. Furthermore, evidence for this relation is found by using two different measures of bird abundance, despite these two abundance measures showing very different correlations with body size across species. Although these patterns in the data are consistent, some are not formally statistically significant ( p = 0.089 or greater). Excluding coastal, stocked, feral and recently colonizing species increased the significance of time since origin of a tribe on species abundances. We conclude that the relation between size and abundance in bird tribes is somehow related to bird taxonomy. While acknowledging the unlikely nature of such an effect, we tentatively propose hypotheses for two mechanisms that could produce the observed patterns.

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Development of a Grassland Integrity Index Based on Breeding Bird Assemblages

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment ◽

10.1007/s10661-006-1237-8 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 118 (1-3) ◽

pp. 125-145 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Bryan R. Coppedge ◽

David M. Engle ◽

Ronald E. Masters ◽

Mark S. Gregory

Keyword(s):

Breeding Bird ◽

Bird Assemblages ◽

Integrity Index

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