Landscape fires disproportionally affect areas of conservation priority but only under low moisture conditions

In this study, BTO scientists mapped large fires that occurred over a 19-year period in Polesia, a region containing some of Europe’s last pristine peatlands and lowland forests in Eastern Europe. Fires are of great concern to policymakers in the region due to the economic and health costs, and a lot of resources are used to suppress fires during hot and dry years. There are potentially natural solutions to fires, however, that could also benefit birds, biodiversity and climate issues. These ‘nature-based’ solutions include restoring drained wetlands. In this study, freely-available satellite data were used to explore the prevalence of large fires and the factors causing them. This allowed researchers to explore whether restoring the landscape’s wetlands could reduce the increasing risk of large, damaging fires as the climate changes. 

Eco-evolutionary drivers of avian migratory connectivity

How important is it to standardise the measured mass of shorebirds weighed at varying intervals after capture?

When ringing birds it is usually important to standardise measurements so that sources of error are minimised. For example, trainee ringers are taught how to measure wing lengths in the most repeatable fashion. Measuring bird weight is usually much more straightforward. One situation where this may not be the case is during canon netting when large numbers of birds can be caught at once, but are weighed gradually as the birds are processed, potentially leading to biases.