
Jean-Yves PaquetIndependent Researcher · Department of Studies
Jean-Yves Paquet
PhD
About
126
Publications
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Introduction
Jean-Yves Paquet currently works at the Department of Studies, Natagora (BirdLife in Belgium). Main interest: biodiversity monitoring, ecology of birds and especially farmland birds, improving the use of citizen sciences in conservation biology.
Additional affiliations
April 2006 - present
Natagora, BirdLife in Belgium
Position
- Research Director
September 2001 - April 2006
May 2000 - September 2001
Education
September 1990 - June 1995
Publications
Publications (126)
Wind turbines are a proven cause of mortality for diurnal birds of prey in Europe, including the Red kite (Milvus milvus), a species listed in Annex I of the Birds Directive and protected in Wallonia. The red kite nests in eastern Wallonia. This population has been expanding rapidly since its return in the 1970s, and is probably acting as a source...
Ce travail a été réalisé dans le cadre d’un marché public confié par le Service Public de Wallonie à l’asbl Natagora, consécutif aux crues catastrophiques de juillet 2021, qui ont fortement impacté les bassins versants de l’Ourthe, de la Vesdre, de l’Amblève, de la Lesse (Lomme) et, dans une moindre mesure, ceux d’autres rivières.
Il vise des espè...
The paper (in French) described the results of long-term monitoring of Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) communal night roost in Southern Belgium (Wallonia and Brussels).
The main goal of the LIFE EUROKITE project is to reduce anthropogenic causes of mortality of the red kite in Europe. The efficient protection of the red kite requires the detailed understanding of overall mortality reasons, especially focusing on those caused by legal and illegal human activities. The LIFE EUROKITE project focuses on a Europe-wide...
Climate change has been associated with both latitudinal and elevational shifts in species’ ranges. The extent, however, to which climate change has driven recent range shifts alongside other putative drivers remains uncertain. Here, we use the changing distributions of 378 European breeding bird species over 30 years to explore the putative driver...
Declines in European bird populations are reported for decades but the direct effect of major anthropogenic pressures on such declines remains unquantified. Causal relationships between pressures and bird population responses are difficult to identify as pressures interact at different spatial scales and responses vary among species. Here, we uncov...
For a long time the extent of the problem of bird mortality because of
powerlines collisions was underestimated for Belgian network operator
Elia. This changed in 2012 as the collaboration between Elia, Natuurpunt
and Natagora was started. During the process of compiling a Belgian
risk atlas, the availability of data and how to integrate them into...
https://www.gbif.org/dataset/2c38cf8a-f981-4dfb-bc9d-dd2b6fc792ed
Waarnemingen.be / observations.be - List of species observed in Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by Natuurpunt and Natagora. Waarnemingen.be (in Dutch) and observation.be (in French) are the two local Belgian subsites of the global observation.org website. The checkl...
Wallonia as an important over-wintering site of the Water Rail Rallus aquaticus.
Although the Water Rail Rallus aquaticus regularly over-winters in certain sites in Wallonia, the actual numbers and the types of habitat are very little known. A survey to investigate the details is being prepared. A possible survey methodology, of tape luring of Wat...
Aim
Species distribution models have become important tools for studying changes in biodiversity. Most studies use these models to evaluate the impact of global changes on biodiversity. For that purpose, scenarios are used that are based on changes in land use and/or land cover, or on climatic changes. However, the temporal transferability of such...
To effectively protect European species such as the Red Kite, a detailed understanding of anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic influences, especially the causes of mortality and spatial context, is required. Modern telemetry techniques are increasingly used to obtain high-resolution information on spatial use. However, collecting such data can be di...
Great Cormorants were censused on a pan-European level in January 2013. Cormorants were found in an enormous winter range, spanning from the Baltic Sea and Atlantic Ocean in the north to the Mediterranean and coasts of North Africa. This large-scale exercise in which more than 5000 volunteers took part resulted in a total of 641,650 Cormorants coun...
Aquatic habitats are subject to multifactorial changes including global warming, invasive species colonisation, modification of organic and micro-pollutant discharge and, for large rivers in Europe, drastic physical modification (e.g. channelisation, impoundments). The Meuse River in Belgium is one of these multi-stressed environments, in which rec...
Mapping the relative risk of impact on nature by a human infrastructure at a landscape scale (“sensitivity mapping”) is an essential tool for minimising the future impact of new development or for prioritising mitigation of existing impacts. High-voltage power lines (“transmission lines”) are known to increase bird mortality by collision. Here we p...
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...
The Red List of Threatened Birds of Wallonia has been compiled from numerous data from population monitoring programs, participatory science portals and recent specific surveys. The status of 151 native species breeding for at least a decade in Wallonia has been evaluated. Twelve additional species are considered regionally extinct, for most of the...
Belgium is located on the western border of the West-European migration route of the Common Cranes (Grus grus) and is regularly flown over both during prenuptial and postnuptial migration. The evolution of the migration pattern during the past 50 years is presented for the southern part of the country, where the majority of migrating cranes are obs...
Natural sounds, and bird song in particular, play a key role in building and maintaining our connection with nature, but widespread declines in bird populations mean that the acoustic properties of natural soundscapes may be changing. Using data-driven reconstructions of soundscapes in lieu of historical recordings, here we quantify changes in soun...
Le suivi permanent de l'avifaune par listes complètes est un projet relativement récent et, bien qu'en croissance, le nombre de listes complètes réalisées est encore relativement faible. Néanmoins, sur quelques années seulement, les données permettent déjà de rendre visibles et de caractériser plusieurs phénomènes concernant la phénologie des oisea...
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...
Around fifteen thousand fieldworkers annually count breeding birds using standardized protocols in 28 European countries. The observations are collected by using country-specific and standardized protocols, validated, summarized and finally used for the production of continent-wide annual and long-term indices of population size changes of 170 spec...
Around fifteen thousand fieldworkers annually count breeding birds using standardized protocols in 28 European countries. The observations are collected by using country-specific and standardized protocols, validated, summarized and finally used for the production of continent-wide annual and long-term indices of population size changes of 170 spec...
Global climate change is driving species' distributions towards the poles and mountain tops during both non‐breeding and breeding seasons, leading to changes in the composition of natural communities. However, the degree of season differences in climate‐driven community shifts has not been thoroughly investigated at large spatial scales.
We compare...
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...
This report presents a sensitivity mapping of bird collision risk with power lines. This study combined recent bird data accumulated from various sources to produce a comprehensive reassessment of, and map, the risk of bird collisions with power lines across Belgium. The end product is a scoring of the high-voltage line segments according to the ri...
Behavioural plasticity during habitat selection plays a key role in determining whether organisms may thrive under human- induced rapid environmental changes. As organisms rely on environmental cues to make decisions, these behavioural responses may be maladaptive. We studied the European stonechat Saxicola torquatus as a model open-habitat bird sp...
La population de Bruant proyer est en déclin très rapide en Belgique et ne compte plus aujourd'hui que quelques centaines de couples tout au plus. Depuis 2016, un projet de sauvegarde de cette espèce ainsi que des autres oiseaux nicheurs des milieux cultivés est développé à Perwez (Brabant Wallon, Belgique). Des mesures agro-environnementales et cl...
After a strong decline during the 20th Century, the Red-Backed Shrike Lanius collurio breeding population has been recovering in Belgium, where the species is mostly found in the Southern half of Wallonia. Its main habitat, extensive hay meadows bordered by hedgerows or bushes, is the focus of restoration projects inside the Natura 2000 site networ...
Le Râle des genêts est un nicheur très rare et localisé en Wallonie. À la lumière de la littérature récente et des plans de sauvetage de l'espèce mis en œuvre à l'étranger, nous proposons une évolution des actions nécessaires pour sa préservation en Wallonie, en nous focalisant principalement sur les possibilités offertes par une modification des M...
Migratory waterbirds require an effectively conserved cohesive network of wetland areas throughout their range and life-cycle. Under rapid climate change, protected area (PA) networks need to be able to accommodate climate driven range shifts in wildlife if they are to continue to be effective in the future. Thus, we investigated geographical varia...
The greatest loss of biodiversity in the EU has occurred on agricultural land. The Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is one of the many numerous and widespread European farmland breeding bird species showing major population declines linked to European agricultural intensification. Here we present results based on monitoring data collected since 1...
Climate change is a major global threat to biodiversity with widespread impacts on ecological communities. Evidence for beneficial impacts on populations is perceived to be stronger and more plentiful than that for negative impacts, but few studies have investigated this apparent disparity, or how ecological factors affect population responses to c...
Species distribution models analyse how species use different types of habitats. Their spatial predictions are often used to prioritize areas for conservation. Individuals may, however, prefer settling in habitat types of low quality compared to other available habitats. This ecological trap phenomenon is usually studied in a small number of habita...
Le suivi annuel des populations d'oiseaux nicheurs communs en Wallonie est sans appel : la majorité des espèces sont en déclin depuis une trentaine d'années et cette baisse s'accélère sur les dix dernières années.
The greatest loss of biodiversity in the EU has occurred on agricultural land. The Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is one of the many numerous and widespread European farmland breeding bird species showing major population declines linked to European agricultural intensification. Here we present results based on monitoring data collected since 1...
The range and breeding numbers of Red Kite Milvus milvus and Black Kite Milvus migrans in Wallonia (Southern Belgium) were estimated following a large-scale field survey in spring 2015 and 2016, complemented by intensive annual survey in the core breeding area of Red Kite. Red Kite breeding population has more than doubled in the last decade: from...
The Red Kite Milvus milvus is a raptor which has been classified as “near threatened” in the IUCN Red List due to rapid decline of several breeding population at the end of the 20th century. Curiously, in Belgium, the small but increasing breeding population did not experience these recent declines. The aim of this work is to contribute to the unde...
A discreet disappearance: the Twite Linaria flavirostris as a migratory and over-wintering species in Wallonia and Brussels.
In Wallonia the Twite Carduelis flavirostris is now a very rare passage or winter visitor, with only five confirmed observations since 1999. In the past, small numbers of Twites were observed every year - mostly in the East o...
Aim
Many species are showing distribution shifts in response to environmental change. We explored (a) the effects of inter‐annual variation in winter weather conditions on non‐breeding distributional abundance of waterbirds exploiting different habitats (deep‐water, shallow water, farmland) and (b) the long‐term shift in the population centroid of...
Every year since 1990 the population trends of the most common breeding birds in Wallonia (81 species) have been estimated using a standardized sampling procedure. Several dozens of volunteers make one or more sets of 15 fixed spots where birds are counted for 5 minutes. Each year, the observers repeat the observation following the same methodology...
The illegal killing and taking of wild birds remains a major threat on a global scale. However, there are few quantitative data on the species affected and countries involved. We quantified the scale and scope of this issue in Northern and Central Europe and the Caucasus, using a diverse range of data sources and incorporating expert knowledge. The...
This poster shows the current distribution of the Corn Bunting Emberiza calandra in Wallonia and the conservation measures that have been promoted so far, mainly through the AES.
An intensive monitoring of corn bunting breeding dynamic has been put into place since 2016 in the plain of Perwez-Thorembais (727 ha). - Due to the warm weather, productivity in 2017 was excellent and as as a result there is hope that the population will increase next year - Nest cover choice appears contrasted between the two years. This may be e...
Effective prevention and control of invasive species generally relies on a comprehensive, coherent and representative list of species that enables resources to be used optimally. European Union (EU) Regulation 1143/2014 on invasive alien species (IAS) aims to control or eradicate priority species, and to manage pathways to prevent the introduction...
Selon une étude effectuée en 2002, le nord-ouest de Bruxelles possède une grande disponibilité en cavités pour les oiseaux cavernicoles malgré le fort développement depuis plusieurs décennies de deux perruches exotiques : la perruche à collier et la perruche alexandre. Suite à l’augmentation des effectifs des deux populations de perruches et suite...
In the last decade, new technologies changed the way to collect, store and share scientific data. In this context, citizens now directly contribute to the conservation of wild populations. Actually, co-ordinated citizen science surveys ensure that the distributions and population trends of European breeding birds are relatively well documented, as...
Over the last decade, the conversion of annual-rotation based crops or grassland areas into non-food perennial crops has been increasingly prevalent in European farming systems. This shift is associated with major changes in management practices and has created new environmental conditions and resources for wildlife. Impacts on birds have been exam...
When to cut the hedges? The added value for breeding birds of an extension to the period of
ban on trimming farm hedges
Under the current legislation, the trimming of hedges in agricultural land in Wallonia is prohibited between April 15 and June 30, so as to protect nesting birds. This paper examines the effect that lengthening this period, follow...
Maximizing the area under biodiversity-related conservation measures is a main target of the European Union (EU) Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. We analyzed whether agri-environmental schemes (AES) within EU common agricultural policy (CAP), special protected areas for birds (SPAs) and Annex I designation within EU Birds Directive had an effect on b...
All over Europe, bird recording portals accumulate millions of casual records every year. Here, we evaluated how these opportunistic datasets could contribute to the monitoring of species of conservation concern at the site level. Our case study was the Natura 2000 site network in Wallonia (Southern Belgium). Data extracted from the popular portal...
Imagine a future where dynamically, from year to year, we can track the progression of alien species (AS), identify emerging problem species, assess their current and future risk and timely inform policy in a seamless data-driven workflow. One that is built on open science and open data infrastructures. By using international biodiversity standards...
Climate change is reshaping bird communities: this phenomenon, which has been evident since at least the late twentieth century, has recently been demonstrated at continental level for both Europe and North America, thanks to the development of an impact indicator tracking changes in populations of breeding birds. In this paper we apply the same pr...
Co-ordinated Citizen Science surveys have ensured that the distributions and population trends of European breeding birds are relatively well documented, as are the mid-winter distributions and abundances of wintering waterfowl. However, the majority of European bird populations are migratory and there are huge gaps in our knowledge of their distri...
Over the last decade, nonfood perennial crops have been increasingly prevalent in European farming systems. Here, vegetation structure and crop management greatly differ from conventional crops and may likely impact farmland birds. Impacts on birds have been examined for bioenergy agricultural systems, such as miscanthus plantations and short rotat...
In 1983, a Corncrake Crex crex breeding population was discovered in the Fagne-Famenne, a grassland-
rich region of Wallonia (Southern Belgium). This discovery led to a Corncrake conservation project,
based on nature reserve implementation, funded by the EU and Wallonia from 1994 to 2001. Twenty
years later, this breeding population is still holdin...
Birds populations allied in abundance
Changes in climate can cause populations of species to decline, to increase, or to remain steady. Stephens et al. looked across species of common birds in Europe and the United States. Despite many differences between the two regions, expectations about how a species might respond to climate change did predict...
In contrast with the situation in the early 20th century, Corncrakes in Belgium only occur in small numbers nowadays. A reconstruction based on all available data shows that between 2000 and 2015 numbers ranged from 1 to 31 calling males. These numbers make the species listed as critically endangered on the Red Lists of both Flanders and Wallonia....
Aim
Species are responding to climate change by changing their distributions, creating debate about the effectiveness of existing networks of protected areas. As a contribution to this debate, we assess whether regional winter abundances and distribution of the Smew Mergellus albellus , a migratory waterbird species listed on Annex I ( EU Birds Dir...
A total of 45 countries were contacted to participate in the pan-European roost count census action, organized within the EU Commission funded initiative ‘CorMan’ in cooperation with the IUCN/Wetlands International Cormorant Research Group.
Due to the huge effort and support given by all the National Coordinators who were in charge and responsible...
High- and very-high-voltage power lines have been identified as a major human-induced source of mortality for birds. When birds fly in large groups, or in poor visibility conditions, they can collide with these structures, in some instances in sufficiently large numbers to raise concern. Elia, as the power transmission system operator in Belgium, i...
Long-term biodiversity monitoring data are mainly used to estimate changes in species occupancy or abundance over time, but they may also be incorporated into predictive models to document species distributions in space. Although changes in occupancy or abundance may be estimated from a relatively limited number of sampling units, small sample size...
Un nouvel atlas des oiseaux nicheurs d'Europe (EBBA2) est actuellement mené par l'European Bird Census Council. La période de terrain de cet ambitieux projet s'étend de 2013 à 2017 et concerne plus de 500 espèces d'oiseaux nicheurs. La méthodologie de base implique de récolter un maximum de données pour chaque carré de 50 x 50 km afin de produire d...
Après un rapide déclin dans les régions environnantes, le Bruant proyer trouve son dernier bastion du Benelux dans les milieux cultivés du nord de la Wallonie et en particulier en Hesbaye. Entre 2010 et 2014, des inventaires ciblés ont été menés suivant deux méthodes complémentaires afin de préciser son statut, de décrire l'évolution récente des po...