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Conservation and Restoration of Coastal Reed Beds in the Context of Global Change: Potential Effects of Habitat Fragmentation for Specialist Marshland Passerines

  • Wetland Conservation
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Abstract

In the context of coastal marshland reduction due to sea level rise, we evaluated the value of fragmented reed beds located within agricultural polders for the conservation of habitats exploited by marshland passerines characterized by different ecological requirements. Although our study was carried out within sites sampled over different years, analyses of body condition and diet of birds during the breeding period, as well as the local daily survival rate and the body mass evolution of birds during the post-breeding period, reveal trends illustrating that fragmented reed beds within inland meadows can: (i) generate habitats that may be significantly exploited by species with a large ecological plasticity, such as the Reed Warbler that could benefit from edge effects of habitat fragmentation; (ii) offer low attractiveness for specialised species such as the Aquatic Warbler, a migratory species apparently very sensitive to the effects of reed bed fragmentation. These results underline the reed beds fragmentation effects that may impact specialised marshland passerines and which should be taken into account in wetland conservation and restoration plans.

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Data Availability

The datasets used for the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

Ringing sessions and the radio-tracking scheme performed for this study have been conducted with the authorisation of the Centre de Recherches sur la Biologie des Populations d’Oiseaux (CRBPO/Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris). Access to the study site was officially allowed by the owner and the manager of the sites: the Conservatoire du Littoral and the Conservatoire d’Espaces Naturels de Poitou-Charentes, respectively. This study received the financial support of the Département de la Charente-Maritime, the Agence de l’Eau Adour-Garonne and the DREAL Poitou-Charentes. For their valuable help during our work, we thank Dominique Marion and Régine Boisseau who assisted us during the ringing sessions. Finally, we thank José Abete and Léna Collet for their thorough reading of this paper, and the anonymous reviewers who provided valuable comments that helped us improve this work.

Funding

This study received the financial support of the Département de la Charente-Maritime, the Agence de l’Eau Adour-Garonne and the DREAL Poitou-Charentes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BioSphère Environnement, 52 Quai de l’Estuaire, 17120, Mortagne-sur-Gironde, France

    Raphaël Musseau, Malaury Crépin & Chloé Brugulat

  2. Centre d’Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO), UMR7204 MNHN-CNRS- UPMC-Sorbonne Université, 55 Rue Buffon, 75005, Paris, France

    Christian Kerbiriou

  3. Station de Biologie Marine, Place de la Croix, 29900, Concarneau, France

    Christian Kerbiriou

Authors
  1. Raphaël Musseau
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  2. Malaury Crépin
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  4. Christian Kerbiriou
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Contributions

RM managed the design of the research, the analyses of the data and wrote the manuscript. MC contributed to collect data on the field and to data analysis. CB contributed to collect data on the field. CK managed analyses of bird food spectrum and contributed in writing the manuscript.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests. 

Ethics Approval

Our study was carried out in agreement with the laws of the French Republic dedicated to the protection of wildlife. Ringing sessions and the GPS-tracking scheme implemented for this study, and which involved the capture of wild birds, have been conducted with the authorization of the Centre de Recherches sur la Biologie des Populations d’Oiseaux (CRBPO – Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris). 

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Musseau, R., Crépin, M., Brugulat, C. et al. Conservation and Restoration of Coastal Reed Beds in the Context of Global Change: Potential Effects of Habitat Fragmentation for Specialist Marshland Passerines. Wetlands 41, 70 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01472-z

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