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Recovery of breeding success in wild birds

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Abstract

We have found that the breeding success of two insectivorous forest passerines, the great tit Parus major and the pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca, has markedly improved in the vicinity of a copper-smelting plant during the seven years since it reduced its emissions of heavy metals. Our results demonstrate that reduced pollution loads can positively affect breeding performance of wild bird populations over a relatively short period, even in an area that has suffered decades of heavy-metal pollution.

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Figure 1: The median lead concentrations (μg g−1, dry weight) in femurs of nestlings along the pollution gradient.
Figure 2: Clutch sizes and fledgling numbers at different distances from the pollution source.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Section of Ecology, University of Turku, Turku, FIN-20014, Finland

    Tapio Eeva & Esa Lehikoinen

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  1. Tapio Eeva
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  2. Esa Lehikoinen
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Correspondence to Tapio Eeva.

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Eeva, T., Lehikoinen, E. Recovery of breeding success in wild birds. Nature 403, 851–852 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35002672

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35002672

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