BASC will part-fund a new disturbance PhD starting at Bournemouth University.
The three year study follows on from a groundbreaking study, part-funded by BASC, which revealed that walking causes 100 times more disturbance than wildfowling.
The aim of the latest PhD is to build on the success of the first study, which looked at the effects of recreational disturbance on waterfowl and waders. Additional evidence in the original study, carried out by Dr Catherine Collop from Bournemouth University, showed that wildfowling accounted for just 0.04% of the disturbance activities on Poole Harbour. The impact was deemed so low that research predicted that there would be no impact on the survival of birds even if it was increased by 25 times.
Dr Matt Ellis, BASC’s scientific adviser and supervisor of the PhD, said: "This study aims to build on the success of Dr Collop's work and will hopefully look at how the impacts of disturbance from wildfowling can be estimated more generally on new sites."
Lindsay Biermann, the PhD student, said: “I feel very lucky to be involved in this project and I’m looking forward to expanding on our current understanding of the impacts of human disturbance on wildlife”.
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