The effects of a decade of agri-environment intervention in a lowland farm landscape on population trends of birds and butterflies

Food production and wildlife conservation are often thought of as incompatible goals, and it is rare that conservation studies consider both economics and long-term changes in ecology. However, a decade-long study at a commercial arable farm in Buckinghamshire has found that agri-environment schemes significantly increased local bird and butterfly populations without damaging food production, offering hope for the UK’s farmland birds and butterflies. 

Mismatches in scale between highly mobile marine megafauna and marine protected areas

Marine Protected Areas are designated to protect marine fauna, such as whales, sharks, turtles and seabirds, but are we getting them right? Tracking data provide valuable information on the movements and space use of species, so can these be used to help us plan and deliver better protected areas for marine magafauna and their habitats?

Loss of breeding waders from key lowland grassland sites in Northern Ireland

Between the mid-1980s and 2018–2019, Northern Ireland’s lowland wet grasslands saw a 73% decline in their breeding wader populations, from 1,296 to 354 pairs across 74 surveyed sites.

Transatlantic spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 by wild birds from Europe to North America in 2021

Highly pathogenic avian influenza was detected in poultry and a free-living gull in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, in 2021, raising concerns about the potential for a new outbreak and questions about the likely origins of the virus.

View this paper online