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Ecologies
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New Methods and Viewpoints in Avian Ecology and Conservation
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New Methods and Viewpoints in Avian Ecology and Conservation

A special issue of Ecologies (ISSN 2673-4133).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 4076

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Alessandro Ferrarini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Lipu-BirdLife Italy, Via Udine 3/a, I-43122 Parma, Italy
Interests: behavioural ecology; ecological modelling; numerical ecology; spatial ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Animal monitoring is a key stage in the process of understanding individual behaviors and social dynamics that characterize populations and species. Recent technological advances have allowed us to collect large data sets on animals, and researchers are now able to better understand their needs and health status and can also investigate the influence of external conditions on their normal behavior.

To acquire this knowledge, animal researchers need to (1) analyze the information provided by recent technological devices and (2) build conceptual and methodological frameworks in order to understand and forecast what animals are doing, when, where, why, and for how long. The availability of such large datasets, for example, in bioacoustics and biotelemetry, should push researchers to improve their methodological (analytical and modeling) tools. Accordingly, the editor of this Special Issue welcomes submissions of both original research and synthetic reviews about novel conceptual and/or methodological ideas on the following topics in avian ecology and conservation: analysis and modeling of biotelemetry data, analysis and modeling of bioacoustics data, new methods for home range estimation, new GIS and geostatistical tools available for animal researchers, new methods to detect the ideal fix of biotelemetry data, and new approaches for building supervised and unsupervised ethograms.

Dr. Alessandro Ferrarini
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Ecologies is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • behavioral ecology
  • bioacoustics
  • biotelemetry
  • ecological modeling
  • GIS
  • spatial ecology

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 3402 KiB  
Article
Test of Ecogeographical Rules on Sparrows (Passer spp.) along the Elevation Gradient of the Himalaya in Central Nepal
by Deepa Dangol, Laxman Khanal, Naresh Pandey, Anuj Ghimire and Randall C. Kyes
Ecologies 2022, 3(4), 480-491; https://doi.org/10.3390/ecologies3040034 - 14 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1829
Abstract
Animals inhabiting colder climates have a larger body size (Bergmann’s rule) and smaller body extremities (Allen’s rule), which help homeothermic animals to retain heat. Such ecogeographical phenomena have frequently been observed in animals along the latitudinal gradient and have occasionally been tested along [...] Read more.
Animals inhabiting colder climates have a larger body size (Bergmann’s rule) and smaller body extremities (Allen’s rule), which help homeothermic animals to retain heat. Such ecogeographical phenomena have frequently been observed in animals along the latitudinal gradient and have occasionally been tested along the elevational gradient. This study tested whether these ecogeographic rules hold true for the morphology of sparrows (Passer spp.) along the elevational gradient offered by the Himalaya in central Nepal. Seventy house sparrows and twenty-eight tree sparrows were captured from 22 different localities of central Nepal between 100 and 3400 m asl, and morphological traits such as body size (body mass, tarsus length, wing length and tail length) and body extremities (bill length and bill width) were measured. Linear regression analysis was used to test the association of morphological measurements with elevation and climatic variables. House sparrows (Passer domesticus) had a wider elevational distribution range and exhibited significantly larger body sizes than the Eurasian tree sparrows (P. montanus). House sparrows had larger body sizes and smaller bills at higher elevations in adherence to Bergmann’s rule and Allen’s rule. Bill length in house sparrows showed a positive association with the temperature following the proposition of Allen’s rule. However, the morphological measurements in Eurasian tree sparrows did not show a distinct pattern with elevation and climatic variables. Therefore, this study concludes that ecogeographical phenomena such as Bergmann’s rule and Allen’s rule could be species-specific based on their biological and ecological characteristics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Methods and Viewpoints in Avian Ecology and Conservation)
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11 pages, 4861 KiB  
Article
Unsupervised Ethograms of a Vulnerable Bird Species: The Red-Footed Falcon in Northern Italy
by Alessandro Ferrarini and Marco Gustin
Ecologies 2022, 3(4), 435-445; https://doi.org/10.3390/ecologies3040031 - 23 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1544
Abstract
Behavioral and movement ecology have quickly advanced as a result of the development of biotelemetry devices and analytical techniques. Global positioning system (GPS) transmitters assist scientists in gathering location and movement data at detailed spatial and temporal resolutions. Machine-learning methods can then be [...] Read more.
Behavioral and movement ecology have quickly advanced as a result of the development of biotelemetry devices and analytical techniques. Global positioning system (GPS) transmitters assist scientists in gathering location and movement data at detailed spatial and temporal resolutions. Machine-learning methods can then be applied to GPS data to provide insights into the ecological mechanisms of animal behavior and movements. By means of accurate GPS data-loggers, in 2019, 2020, and 2021, we tracked 8 red-footed falcons at the two largest colonies in Italy. We collected 13,484 GPS points and used recently introduced machine-learning methodology Unsupervised Animal Behaviour Examiner (UABE) to deduce the regular, nested, and hourly ethograms of the tracked individuals. We found clear and significant patterns of the red-footed falcons’ behaviors on monthly, daily, and hourly bases. Our study is a step forward in advancing the knowledge of this threatened species, and provides a baseline assessment of the current behavioral patterns of this red-footed falcon population, with which results of future studies can be compared to detect potential behavioral changes that act as early warnings of increased human disturbance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Methods and Viewpoints in Avian Ecology and Conservation)
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