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Learning from long time series of harvest and population data : Swedish lessons for European goose management

Liljebäck, Niklas ; Bergqvist, Göran ; Elmberg, Johan ; Haas, Fredrik LU ; Nilsson, Leif LU ; Lindström, Åke LU orcid and Månsson, Johan LU (2021) In Wildlife Biology 2021(1).
Abstract

Goose management in Europe is faced by multiple challenges, as some species are declining and in need of conservation actions, while other populations have become very abundant, resulting in calls for increased harvest. Sweden has long-Term series of harvest data and counts of breeding and autumn-staging geese. We used national data (indices) for greylag goose, bean goose and Canada goose to study shifts in temporal trends and correlative patterns, and to infer possible causal links between harvest and population trends. Our study provides an opportunity to guide management given the data collected within the present monitoring, as well as to suggest improvements for future data collection. The populations of greylag and Canada geese... (More)

Goose management in Europe is faced by multiple challenges, as some species are declining and in need of conservation actions, while other populations have become very abundant, resulting in calls for increased harvest. Sweden has long-Term series of harvest data and counts of breeding and autumn-staging geese. We used national data (indices) for greylag goose, bean goose and Canada goose to study shifts in temporal trends and correlative patterns, and to infer possible causal links between harvest and population trends. Our study provides an opportunity to guide management given the data collected within the present monitoring, as well as to suggest improvements for future data collection. The populations of greylag and Canada geese increased in Sweden 1979-2018, but this long-Term trend included a recent decrease in the latter species. Bean goose breeding index decreased, whilst staging numbers and harvest varied with no clear long-Term trend. For Canada goose, our analysis suggests that harvest may affect population growth negatively. For bean goose and greylag goose we could not detect any effect of harvest on autumn counts the following year. We find that the present data and analysis of coherence may suffice as basis for decisions for the current management situation in Sweden with its rather unspecific goals for greylag (very abundant) and Canada goose (invasive species) populations. However, for management of bean geese, with international concerns of over harvest, data lack crucial information. For future management challenges, with more explicit goals, for all goose species we advocate information that is more precise. Data such as hunting effort, age-structure of goose populations and mark-recapture data to estimate survival and population size, is needed to feed predictive population models guiding future Swedish and European goose management.

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author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Conservation, Goose populations, Harvest, Management, Monitoring programs, Population trajectories, Time series
in
Wildlife Biology
volume
2021
issue
1
article number
wlb.00733
publisher
Nordic Council of Wildlife Research
external identifiers
  • scopus:85110272529
ISSN
0909-6396
DOI
10.2981/wlb.00733
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7890d443-fbf3-44dd-84c0-a196fa8d29f9
date added to LUP
2021-09-07 15:30:16
date last changed
2022-04-27 03:42:27
@article{7890d443-fbf3-44dd-84c0-a196fa8d29f9,
  abstract     = {{<p>Goose management in Europe is faced by multiple challenges, as some species are declining and in need of conservation actions, while other populations have become very abundant, resulting in calls for increased harvest. Sweden has long-Term series of harvest data and counts of breeding and autumn-staging geese. We used national data (indices) for greylag goose, bean goose and Canada goose to study shifts in temporal trends and correlative patterns, and to infer possible causal links between harvest and population trends. Our study provides an opportunity to guide management given the data collected within the present monitoring, as well as to suggest improvements for future data collection. The populations of greylag and Canada geese increased in Sweden 1979-2018, but this long-Term trend included a recent decrease in the latter species. Bean goose breeding index decreased, whilst staging numbers and harvest varied with no clear long-Term trend. For Canada goose, our analysis suggests that harvest may affect population growth negatively. For bean goose and greylag goose we could not detect any effect of harvest on autumn counts the following year. We find that the present data and analysis of coherence may suffice as basis for decisions for the current management situation in Sweden with its rather unspecific goals for greylag (very abundant) and Canada goose (invasive species) populations. However, for management of bean geese, with international concerns of over harvest, data lack crucial information. For future management challenges, with more explicit goals, for all goose species we advocate information that is more precise. Data such as hunting effort, age-structure of goose populations and mark-recapture data to estimate survival and population size, is needed to feed predictive population models guiding future Swedish and European goose management.</p>}},
  author       = {{Liljebäck, Niklas and Bergqvist, Göran and Elmberg, Johan and Haas, Fredrik and Nilsson, Leif and Lindström, Åke and Månsson, Johan}},
  issn         = {{0909-6396}},
  keywords     = {{Conservation; Goose populations; Harvest; Management; Monitoring programs; Population trajectories; Time series}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Nordic Council of Wildlife Research}},
  series       = {{Wildlife Biology}},
  title        = {{Learning from long time series of harvest and population data : Swedish lessons for European goose management}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00733}},
  doi          = {{10.2981/wlb.00733}},
  volume       = {{2021}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}