{"id":39520,"date":"2023-04-03T16:41:17","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T14:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/uncategorized\/restauration-dilots-pour-les-mouettes-goelands-et-sternes-menaces-de-la-cote-mediterraneenne-des-sites-de-nidification-devenus-attractifs-grace-a-un-important-effort-collectif\/"},"modified":"2023-06-30T12:11:34","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T10:11:34","slug":"restauration-dilots-pour-les-mouettes-goelands-et-sternes-menaces-de-la-cote-mediterraneenne-des-sites-de-nidification-devenus-attractifs-grace-a-un-important-effort-collectif","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/publications-en\/restauration-dilots-pour-les-mouettes-goelands-et-sternes-menaces-de-la-cote-mediterraneenne-des-sites-de-nidification-devenus-attractifs-grace-a-un-important-effort-collectif\/","title":{"rendered":"Restoring islets: nesting sites now attractive thanks to a major collective effort"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 10 years of restoring or creating islets suitable for seagulls, gulls and terns all along the Mediterranean coast, the results of monitoring are now known and very encouraging. These actions have made it possible to restore or create nesting sites that are more attractive than their natural counterparts, with a higher occupancy rate and higher breeding success. These promising results were unveiled on March 29, 2023 in an article published in the journal Conservation Biology.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Damaged nesting sites endanger bird colonies on the Mediterranean coast<\/em>
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Seven species of seagulls, gulls and terns breed in mixed colonies in the marshes, lagoons and salt marshes of the French Mediterranean coast: the black-headed gull, the great black-backed gull, the common tern, the hansel tern, the common tern and the little tern. The conservation status of most of these species has become a cause for concern in recent decades, not least due to the deterioration of their nesting sites.<\/p>\n

The results of this study concern 154 islets that were restored or created between 2007 and 2016 thanks to a major collective effort as part of various conservation programs, including the Life+ ENVOLL project.<\/a><\/p>\n

Avoiding the pitfalls of restoration<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Even with the best of intentions, human intervention does not always produce the desired results. Of course, restoration often results in the creation of attractive habitats for threatened species, usually because an attempt is made to reproduce the characteristics of good-quality natural habitats. Nevertheless, the actual quality of the restored site may be insufficient, so that reproduction may be compromised or less good in the restored habitat. Such a mismatch between the attractiveness and quality of restored habitats creates what is known as an “ecological trap<\/strong>“. We wanted to make sure that this was not the case for these restored islets on the Mediterranean coast, and that they were fulfilling their role. To do this, we analyzed data from 10 years of monitoring by the organizations involved.<\/p>\n

Attractiveness of restored islands<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The restored and created islets are more attractive than their natural counterparts, for six out of seven species – the exception being the black-headed gull. The restoration project has therefore succeeded in creating attractive nesting sites<\/strong>. It was also shown that the colonization of an islet by a species was higher when the sites had been occupied by other species the previous year<\/strong>. Moreover, colonies tended to be more loyal to their breeding site when breeding had been successful the previous year<\/strong>. In addition, the researchers found that the attractiveness of restored islets increased with distance from the shore, suggesting that islet isolation is associated with a perceived reduced risk of predation by terrestrial predators<\/strong> (badgers, foxes etc.).<\/p>\n

Lastly, it was shown that reproduction of the various species is better on restored islets<\/strong>, with higher chances of success and a greater number of chicks reaching fledging.<\/p>\n

This study thus shows that the nesting sites built or restored by the managers proved to be both attractive and of good quality for the target species, so that they did not create ecological traps. On the contrary, these results point to the success of this restoration project. It is to be hoped that other managers elsewhere in the Mediterranean and the rest of the world will be able to draw inspiration from it, in order to remedy the degradation of habitats for these bird species<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Reference<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Schwartz Timoth\u00e9e, Aur\u00e9lien Besnard, Christophe Pin, Olivier Scher, Thomas Blanchon, Arnaud B\u00e9chet et Nicolas Sadoul. 2023. Efficacy of created and restored nesting sites for the conservation of colonial Laridae in the south of France<\/em>. Conservation biology. 37(2).e14005 : http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1111\/cobi.14005<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Managers involved in islet restoration and monitoring<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Occitanie<\/u>\u00a0: CEN Occitanie, Groupe Ornithologique du Roussillon (GOR), LPO Occitanie, Syndicat mixte RIVAGE, Parc Naturel R\u00e9gional de la Narbonnaise en M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e, Aude Nature, Adena, S\u00e8te Agglop\u00f4le M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e, Communaut\u00e9 d’Agglom\u00e9ration H\u00e9rault M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e, Communaut\u00e9 de communes a Domitienne, Agglom\u00e9ration du Pays de l’Or, Syndicat Mixte de la Camargue Gardoise.<\/p>\n

R\u00e9gion Sud<\/u>\u00a0: <\/strong>LPO PACA, Amis des Marais du Vigueirat, CEN PACA, Office fran\u00e7ais de la biodiversit\u00e9 (OFB), Tour du Valat, Syndicat intercommunal de l’ancienne Poudrerie (SIANPOU), Compagnie des Salins du Midi et Salines de l\u2019Est, Parc Naturel R\u00e9gional de Camargue, Eau et Vie Environnement (EVE), Grand Port Maritime de Marseille,Toulon Provence M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e.<\/p>\n

Collectivit\u00e9 de Corse\u00a0: <\/u>Collectivit\u00e9 de Corse (ex Conseil D\u00e9partemental de la Haute Corse (2B)), DREAL Corse, CEN Corse<\/p>\n

\n

Press Contact
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Timoth\u00e9e Schwartz\u00a0: timothee.schwartz@arocha.org<\/a> \/\/ t\u00e9l : +33 (0)6 85 52 56 31<\/p>\n

Christophe Pin\u00a0: christophe.pin@espaces-naturels.fr<\/a> \/\/ t\u00e9l : +33 (0)6 37 32 42 26<\/p>\n

Olivier Scher\u00a0: olivier.scher@cen-occitanie.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Arnaud B\u00e9chet\u00a0: bechet@tourduvalat.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Additional information (in French) :<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Synth\u00e8se du projet Life+ ENVOLL (Layman report)<\/a><\/p>\n

Les actes du s\u00e9minaire final du projet Life +ENVOLL<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 10 years of restoring or creating islets suitable for seagulls, gulls and terns all along the Mediterranean coast, the results of monitoring are now known and very encouraging. These actions have made it possible to restore or create nesting sites that are more attractive than their natural counterparts, with a higher occupancy rate and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":38872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[384,101],"tags":[268,275,1012,296,278],"class_list":["post-39520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualites-en","category-publications-en","tag-biodiv-en","tag-cons-en","tag-laro-limicole-en","tag-oiseaux-deau-en","tag-restau-en","country-mediterranean"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39520"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39522,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39520\/revisions\/39522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourduvalat.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}