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Dry paths effectively reduce road mortality of small and medium-sized terrestrial vertebrates.
Niemi, Milla; Jääskeläinen, Niina C; Nummi, Petri; Mäkelä, Tiina; Norrdahl, Kai.
Afiliação
  • Niemi M; Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: milla.niemi@helsinki.fi.
  • Jääskeläinen NC; Department of Biology, University of Turku, FI-20014, University of Turku, Finland.
  • Nummi P; Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland.
  • Mäkelä T; Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland.
  • Norrdahl K; Department of Biology, University of Turku, FI-20014, University of Turku, Finland.
J Environ Manage ; 144: 51-7, 2014 Nov 01.
Article em En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-24921961
ABSTRACT
Wildlife passages are widely used mitigation measures designed to reduce the adverse impacts of roads on animals. We investigated whether road kills of small and medium-sized terrestrial vertebrates can be reduced by constructing dry paths adjacent to streams that pass under road bridges. The study was carried out in southern Finland during the summer of 2008. We selected ten road bridges with dry paths and ten bridges without them, and an individual dry land reference site for each study bridge on the basis of landscape and traffic features. A total of 307 dead terrestrial vertebrates were identified during the ten-week study period. The presence of dry paths decreased the amount of road-killed terrestrial vertebrates (Poisson GLMM; p < 0.001). That was true also when considering amphibians alone (p < 0.001). The evidence on road-kills on mammals was not such clear. In the mammal model, a lack of dry paths increased the amount of carcasses (p = 0.001) whereas the number of casualties at dry path bridges was comparable with dry land reference sites. A direct comparison of the dead ratios suggests an average efficiency of 79% for the dry paths. When considering amphibians and mammals alone, the computed effectiveness was 88 and 70%, respectively. Our results demonstrate that dry paths under road bridges can effectively reduce road-kills of small and medium-sized terrestrial vertebrates, even without guiding fences. Dry paths seemed to especially benefit amphibians which are a threatened species group worldwide and known to suffer high traffic mortality.
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Texto completo: 1 Coleções: 01-internacional Base de dados: MEDLINE Assunto principal: Répteis / Acidentes de Trânsito / Conservação dos Recursos Naturais / Anfíbios / Mamíferos Tipo de estudo: Prognostic_studies Limite: Animals País/Região como assunto: Europa Idioma: En Ano de publicação: 2014 Tipo de documento: Article

Texto completo: 1 Coleções: 01-internacional Base de dados: MEDLINE Assunto principal: Répteis / Acidentes de Trânsito / Conservação dos Recursos Naturais / Anfíbios / Mamíferos Tipo de estudo: Prognostic_studies Limite: Animals País/Região como assunto: Europa Idioma: En Ano de publicação: 2014 Tipo de documento: Article