Brett K Sandercock

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• Doctor of Philosophy (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
• Senior Research Scientist at Norwegian Institute for Nature Research

Population ecologists require robust estimates of survival and other demographic parameters for understanding the ecological and evolutionary drivers of wildlife population dynamics. Live encounter data from individual animals marked with unique tags or natural marking patterns are a key source of information for many species. Imperfect detection a...

The goal of our report was to review recent advances in statistical models and software tools for occupancy models for occurrence data and N-mixture models for count data. The models are useful for estimating distributions and abundance of uncommon or rare species, and especially in situations where individuals are difficult to detect in the field...

The Prairie Pothole Region of central Canada supports a diverse community of breeding waterbirds, but many species have declining populations and the demographic mechanisms driving the declines remain unknown. We conducted a 7-year field study during 1995-2001 to investigate the demographic performance of Marbled Godwits (Limosa fedoa) and Willets...

Naturalized species of alien plants and animals comprise < 3% of biodiversity recorded in Norway but have had major impacts on natural ecosystems through displacement of native species. Encroachment of alien species has been especially problematic for coastal sites close to transport facilities and urban areas with high density housing. The goal of...

Capture, handling and marking of wild birds requires ethical considerations of the risk of possible harm to individual birds, and the need to acquire the necessary knowledge as a basis for the management and conservation of bird populations. The effects on the welfare of individuals vary between methods and bird groups. This report provides an upda...

Habitat changes associated with urbanization have major and complex effects on wildlife. In birds, urban populations often have lower reproductive success but are able to maintain similar or higher densities than non‐urban populations. One explanation proposed for this paradox is that higher survival of birds in cities may compensate for lower repr...

Small-scale hydropower plants with an installed capacity <10 MW are an important part of Norway’s local and regional development. Small-scale facilities have been viewed as a relatively environmentally friendly form of energy production because they are assumed to have limited negative environmental impact. However, the plants potentially have envi...

Climate warming is driving changes in species distribution, but habitat characteristics can interact with warming temperatures to affect populations in unexpected ways. We investigated wintering waterbird responses to climate warming depending on habitat characteristics, with a focus on the northern boundary of their non‐breeding distributions wher...

A combination of life history traits and environmental conditions has been highlighted as the main drivers of avian breeding success. While drivers of breeding success are well known in some species, especially birds in northern, temperate regions; species in other parts of the world have received relatively little attention. In this study, we used...

Identifying the migration routes and stopover sites used by declining species is critical for developing targeted conservation actions. Long-distance migratory shorebirds are among the groups of birds declining most rapidly, yet we frequently lack detailed knowledge about the routes and stopover sites they use during their hemisphere-spanning migra...

Identifying the migration routes and stopover sites used by declining species is critical for developing targeted conservation actions. Long-distance migratory shorebirds are among the groups of birds declining most rapidly, yet we frequently lack detailed knowledge about the routes and stopover sites they use during their hemisphere-spanning migra...

Seasonally abundant arthropods are a crucial food source for many migratory birds that breed in the Arctic. In cold environments, the growth and emergence of arthropods are particularly tied to temperature. Thus, the phenology of arthropods is anticipated to undergo a rapid change in response to a warming climate, potentially leading to a trophic m...

Global climate change has altered the timing of seasonal events (i.e., phenology) for a diverse range of biota. Within and among species, however, the degree to which alterations in phenology match climate variability differ substantially. To better understand factors driving these differences, we evaluated variation in timing of nesting of eight A...

Global biodiversity loss is a major environmental concern. The wildlife on islands are particularly vulnerable to threats posed by alien predators, habitat loss and overexploitation. Effective conservation management of vulnerable species requires reliable information on vital population rates for all life stages and an understanding of key environ...

VKM has evaluated to what extent keeping of cats pose a risk to biodiversity in Norway. Risks were assessed separately for threats to biodiversity from direct predation, indirect (non-lethal) effects, competition with other wildlife and spread of infectious organisms. VKM also assessed the risk of reduced animal welfare related to the keeping of do...

The Transition towards sustainable energy systems requires phasing out fossil fuels. Hydropower is a key source of renewable energy and can contribute to reaching a 100 % low carbon-based energy system. Uncertainty remains about land cover changes due to hydropower deployment with a widespread perception of major losses in the land from inundation...

High mountain habitats are globally important for biodiversity. At least 12% of birds worldwide breed at or above the treeline, many of which are endemic species or species of conservation concern. However, due to the challenges of studying mountain birds in difficult-to-access habitats, little is known about their status and trends. This book prov...

Tundra arthropods are of considerable ecological importance as a seasonal food source for many arctic‐breeding birds. Dietary composition and food preferences are rarely known, complicating assessments of ecological interactions in a changing environment. In our field study, we investigated the nestling diet of snow buntings ( Plectrophenax nivalis...

Tropical islands harbour a disproportionally high number of endemic species, which face increasing threats due to habitat loss, disturbance and introduced alien predators. Long-term demographic studies are needed to understand how such threats may impact on population productivity. We report an investigation of a key demographic parameter, nest sur...

This is an assessment of risk and risk-reducing measures related to the introduction and dispersal of the invasive alien carpet tunicate Didemnum vexillum in Norway.

This report describes the status for the Arctic fox in Norway 2022, summarizing current manage-ment actions and population trends for Norway, regions of Norway and all sub-populations over the past 15 years. The national monitoring program was established in 2003, now rooted in the action plan (2017-2021). The monitoring programme is based on annua...

Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Biodiversity of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment. VKM Report 2022: 32, ISBN 978-82-8259-408-0:,ISSN: 2535-4019. Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM), Oslo, Norway.

Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Biodiversity of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment

The relationships between species abundance or occurrence versus spatial variation in climate are commonly used in species distribution models to forecast future distributions. Under “space‐for‐time substitution”, the effects of climate variation on species are assumed to be equivalent in both space and time. Two unresolved issues of space‐for‐time...

The panel-based assessment of ecosystem condition (PAEC) is an evidence-based ap-proach to assess the condition of Norwegian ecosystems. The assessment is carried out by an expert panel with broad expertise in the ecosystems to be assessed and is inspired by approaches used in international assessments such as IPCC and IPBES. The assessment follows...

Protected area networks help species respond to climate warming. However, the contribution of a site's environmental and conservation‐relevant characteristics to these responses is not well understood. We investigated how composition of nonbreeding waterbird communities (97 species) in the European Union Natura 2000 (N2K) network (3018 sites) chang...

Wetland bird species have been declining in population size worldwide as climate warming and land-use change affect their suitable habitats. We used species distribution models (SDMs) to predict changes in range dynamics for 64 non-passerine wetland birds breeding in Europe, including range size, position of centroid, and margins. We fitted the SDM...

Every year, many wild animals undertake long-distance migration to breed in the north, taking advantage of seasonally high pulses in food supply, fewer parasites, and lower predation pressure in comparison with equatorial latitudes. Growing evidence suggests that climate-change-induced phenological mismatches have reduced food availability. Further...

Intensification of livestock production has reduced heterogeneity in vegetative structure in managed grasslands, which has been linked to widespread declines in grassland songbird populations throughout North America. Patch-burn grazing management aims to restore some of that heterogeneity in vegetative structure by burning discrete pasture section...

Adult survival is a key component of population dynamics, and understanding variation in and the drivers of adult survival rates and longevity is critical for ecological and evolutionary studies, as well as for conservation biology and practice. Tropical species of landbirds are often selected to have higher adult survival due to high nest predatio...

Langtidseffekter av Smøla vindpark på den lokale bestanden av havørn (Haliaeetus albicilla)

Aim To evaluate the utility of opportunistic data from citizen science programmes for forecasting species distributions against forecasts with a model of individual‐based population dynamics. Location Sweden. Methods We evaluated whether alternative methods for building habitat suitability models (HSMs) based on opportunistic data from citizen sc...

Surveying and monitoring biodiversity using new technology: eDNA and camera trapping. NINA Report 1962. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. Norway has committed to halting the loss of biodiversity. However, preserving biodiversity requires knowledge about species distributions. For some species we have good knowledge of distribution and popul...

Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions, although many species show a so-called climatic debt, where their range shifts lag behind the fast shift in temperature isoclines. Protected areas (PAs) may impact the rate of distribution changes both positively and negatively. At the cold edges of species distributions, PAs can facilita...

Selection for crypsis has been recognized as an important ecological driver of animal colouration, whereas the relative importance of thermoregulation is more contentious with mixed empirical support. A potential thermal advantage of darker individuals has been observed in a wide range of animal species. Arctic animals that exhibit colour polymorph...

During the past decade, environmental DNA (eDNA) methodology has become an important non-invasive tool to monitor aquatic micro- and macro-organisms, including freshwater crayfish. In Europe, noble crayfish Astacus astacus is the most widespread native freshwater crayfish. However, the species is threatened in its entire distribution range. It is t...

Average annual temperatures in the Arctic increased by 2–3 °C during the second half of the twentieth century. Because shorebirds initiate northward migration to Arctic nesting sites based on cues at distant wintering grounds, climate-driven changes in the phenology of Arctic invertebrates may lead to a mismatch between the nutritional demands of s...

Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions and community composition. Many species have a so‐called climatic debt, that is, shifts in range lag behind shifts in temperature isoclines. Inside protected areas (PAs), community changes in response to climate warming can be facilitated by greater colonization rates by warm‐dwelling spec...

According to classic theory, species' population dynamics and distributions are less influenced by species interactions under harsh climatic conditions compared to under more benign climatic conditions. In alpine and boreal ecosystems in Fennoscandia, the cyclic dynamics of rodents strongly affect many other species, including ground-nesting birds...

Conservation status and management priorities are often informed by population trends. Trend estimates can be derived from population surveys or models, but both methods are associated with sources of uncertainty. Many Arctic-breeding shorebirds are thought to be declining based on migration and/or overwintering population surveys, but data are lac...

Temperature has a strong influence on the development, survival, and fecundity of herbivorous arthropods, and it plays a key role in regulating the growth and development of their host plants. In addition, temperature affects the production of plant secondary chemicals as well as structural characteristics used for defense against herbivores. Thus,...

We examined the exposure of White-throated Dippers (Cinclus cinclus) to aluminum and mercury in acidified and non-acidified streams in two regions of Norway. Both metals showed significantly higher concentrations in the body tissues of dippers in acidified streams at southern sites compared to non-acidified streams in central Norway. Elevated conce...

In Focus: Reneerkens, J., Versluijs, T. S. L., Piersma, T., Alves, J. A., Boorman, M., Corse, C., … Lok, T. (2020). Low fitness at low latitudes: wintering in the tropics increases migratory delays and mortality rates in an Arctic breeding shorebird. Journal of Animal Ecology, 89, 691–703. A central question in migratory ecology has been to underst...

According to classic theory, species interactions are less important than climatic variation for species population dynamics and distributions in climatically harsh regions compared with more climatically benign regions. In boreal ecosystems, the cyclic dynamics of rodents strongly affect many other species, including ground-nesting birds. Accordin...

Habitat requirements of migratory birds can be dynamic during the annual cycle, and understanding habitat use during the nonbreeding season is important for conservation planning. In grassland birds, habitat selection is often determined by features of vegetative structure that are associated with predation risk, food resources, or thermal environm...

The breeding population of peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) in Norway was almost exterminated by the early 1970's. Long-term monitoring of breeding pairs has been conducted since 1976 up to present. Peregrine falcons were first established at breeding sites in coastal habitats, where they remained at stable low numbers until the early 1990's. S...

Integrated models of the ecology of migratory species require tracking of individual migratory organisms throughout the annual cycle. Here, we report the first information on the movement patterns of nine Upland Sandpipers (Bartramia longicauda) that were captured at breeding sites in Kansas and Massachusetts, and tracked with GPS and PTT tags to n...

Background Invasive species represent a major challenge for the conservation of biodiversity. The invasive ectoparasitic fluke Gyrodactylus salaris is considered one of the major threats to the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), and the parasite has so far been detected in 50 rivers in Norway. Aims We investigate environmental DNA (eDNA) as a tool for...

Gut microbiota can have important effects on host health, but explanatory factors and pathways that determine gut microbial composition can differ among host lineages. In mammals, host phylogeny is one of the main drivers of gut microbiota, a result of vertical transfer of microbiota during birth. In birds, it is less clear what the drivers might b...

Responses to climate change can vary across functional groups and trophic levels, leading to a temporal decoupling of trophic interactions or “phenological mismatches.” Despite a growing number of single‐species studies that identified phenological mismatches as a nearly universal consequence of climate change, we have a limited understanding of th...

In marine and terrestrial ecosystems, organisms are affected by environmental variations that cause fluctuations in population size. The harvest–interaction hypothesis predicts that environmentally induced fluctuations in population size are magnified by harvesting. Empirical evidence is urgently needed in the context of global change because great...

Ongoing habitat loss and intensification of management of remaining grasslands have led to large population declines of grassland songbirds in North America. As an alternative to intensive and homogeneous use of rangelands, patch-burn grazing creates heterogeneity in vegetative structure across the landscape by restoring the historical interaction...

en Despite the importance of tropical birds in the development of life history theory, we lack information about demographic rates and drivers of population dynamics for most species. We used a 7‐year (2007–2013) capture‐mark‐recapture dataset from an exceptionally wet premontane forest at mid‐elevation in Costa Rica to estimate apparent survival f...

Diagnosing causes of population declines requires an understanding of the contributions of demographic vital rates to interannual variability and long-term changes in population size. At Kent Island, New Brunswick, Canada, an isolated population of Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) collapsed between 1987 and 2010, providing a unique opportunity t...

To identify priorities for management of seabirds during the breeding season, it is important to understand the ecological mechanisms driving chick growth and survival. In this study, we examined the effects of diet and prevailing weather on the growth and survival of chicks of black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla over a 10 yr period at Anda, a...

The Two-banded Plover (TBPL, Charadrius falklandicus) is a little-known shorebird endemic to southern South America that breeds along Patagonian coastal areas. Our aim was to estimate nest survival and explore breeding site fidelity in two beaches: Playa Paraná (PP, 42°47’S, 64°56’W) and Playas Blancas (PB, 42°42’S, 64°33’W), both located in Chubut...

Marking wild birds is an integral part of many field studies. However, if marks affect the vital rates or behavior of marked individuals, any conclusions reached by a study might be biased relative to the general population. Leg bands have rarely been found to have negative effects on birds and are frequently used to mark individuals. Leg flags, wh...

Fragmentation and degraded habitat conditions can result in increased competition for critical resources, altered mating systems, and can eventually result in population declines or extinction. We investigated the degree to which habitat degradation and habitat loss impacted the breeding ecology of Greater Prairie-Chickens at 3 study sites across r...

Knowledge of landscape and regional circumstances where conservation programs are successful on working lands in agricultural production are needed. Converting marginal croplands to grasslands using conservation programs such as the United States Department of Agriculture Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) should be beneficial for many grassland‐ob...