Widespread local house-sparrow extinctions

House-sparrow populations have declined sharply in Western Europe in recent decades, but the reasons for this decline have yet to be identified, despite intense public interest in the matter. Here we use a combination of field experimentation, genetic analysis and demographic data to show that a red...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature (London) Vol. 418; no. 6901; pp. 931 - 932
Main Authors Hole, David G, Whittingham, Mark J, Bradbury, Richard B, Anderson, Guy Q A, Lee, Patricia L M, Wilson, Jeremy D, Krebs, John R
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 29.08.2002
Subjects
Agriculture - trends
Animals
Ecosystem
England
Food Supply
Gene Frequency
Microsatellite Repeats
Population Dynamics
Seasons
Songbirds - genetics
Songbirds - physiology
Survival Rate
England
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Summary:House-sparrow populations have declined sharply in Western Europe in recent decades, but the reasons for this decline have yet to be identified, despite intense public interest in the matter. Here we use a combination of field experimentation, genetic analysis and demographic data to show that a reduction in winter food supply caused by agricultural intensification is probably the principal explanation for the widespread local extinctions of rural house-sparrow populations in southern England. We show that farmland populations exhibit fine-level genetic structuring and that some populations are unable to sustain themselves (sinks), whereas others act as sources.
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ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/418931a