Evaluation of protected area effectiveness is critical for conservation of biodiversity. Protected areas that prioritize biodiversity conservation are, optimally, located and managed in ways that support relatively large and stable or increasing wildlife populations. Yet evaluating conservation efficacy remains a challenging endeavor. We used an extensive community science data set, eBird, to evaluate the efficacy of protected areas for birds across the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts of the United States. We modeled trends (2007–2018) for 12 vulnerable waterbirds that use coastal areas during breeding or wintering. We compared two types of protected areas—sites where conservation organizations implemented active stewardship or management or both to reduce human disturbance (hereafter stewardship sites) and local, state, federal, and private protected areas managed to maintain natural land cover (hereafter protected areas)—as well as unprotected areas. We evaluated differences in trends between stewardship, protected, and unprotected areas across the Gulf and Atlantic coasts as a whole. Similar to a background sample, stewardship was known to occur at stewardship sites, but unknown at protected and unprotected areas. Four of 12 target species—Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger), Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), Least Tern (Sternula antillarum), and Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)—had more positive trends (two to 34 times greater) at stewardship sites than protected areas. Furthermore, five target species showed more positive trends at sites with stewardship programs than unprotected sites during at least one season, whereas seven species showed more positive trends at protected than unprotected areas. No species had more negative trends at stewardship sites than unprotected areas, and two species had more negative trends at protected than unprotected areas. Anthropogenic disturbance is a serious threat to coastal birds, and our findings demonstrate that stewardship to reduce its negative impacts helps ensure conservation of vulnerable waterbirds.

中文翻译：

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管理对沿海鸟类保护区有效性的影响

保护区有效性的评估对于保护生物多样性至关重要。优先考虑生物多样性保护的保护区以支持相对较大和稳定或不断增加的野生动物种群的方式进行最佳定位和管理。然而，评估保护效果仍然是一项具有挑战性的工作。我们使用广泛的社区科学数据集 eBird 来评估墨西哥湾和美国大西洋沿岸鸟类保护区的功效。我们模拟了 12 只在繁殖或越冬期间利用沿海地区的脆弱水鸟的趋势（2007-2018 年）。我们比较了两种类型的保护区——保护组织实施积极管理或管理或两者兼有以减少人为干扰的地点（以下简称管理地点）以及地方、州、联邦、和私人保护区设法保持自然土地覆盖（以下简称保护区）以及未保护区。我们评估了整个海湾和大西洋沿岸的管理、受保护和未受保护区域之间趋势的差异。与背景样本类似，管理工作已知发生在管理地点，但未知在受保护和未受保护的区域。12 个目标物种中的 4 个——Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger )、褐鹈鹕 ( Pelecanus occidentalis )、 Least Tern ( Sternula antillarum ) 和管道鸻 ( Charadrius melodus ))——在管理地点比保护区有更多的积极趋势（大 2 到 34 倍）。此外，至少在一个季节，五个目标物种在有管理计划的地点比未受保护的地点表现出更多的积极趋势，而七个物种在受保护的地区比未受保护的地区表现出更多的积极趋势。没有物种在管理地点的负面趋势比未受保护的地区更多，并且有两个物种在受保护的地区比未受保护的地区有更多的负面趋势。人为干扰是对沿海鸟类的严重威胁，我们的研究结果表明，减少其负面影响的管理有助于确保保护脆弱的水鸟。