Bentze, Chloé; Burningham, Helene; Magee, Emer; (2023) Down the rabbit-hole: satellite-based analysis of spatiotemporal patterns in wild European rabbit burrows for better coastal dune management. Journal of Coastal Conservation , 27 (6) , Article 61. 10.1007/s11852-023-00992-6.

Text Burningham_MANUSCRIPT_FinalEdits.pdf - Accepted Version Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 5 November 2024. Download (1MB)

Abstract

Coastal dune systems in northwest Europe are facing conflicting challenges associated with climate change and human interventions in landuse and landscape management. Research over the last decade has highlighted a global stabilisation pattern in coastal dunes, fuelling long-standing debates surrounding conservation approaches. Dune erosion can be considered an important process within a naturally functioning dune system, but also a management challenge. The fossorial behaviour of burrowing mammals within coastal dunes is one driver of erosion that has long tested our perspectives on natural processes within dunes, but is understudied in coastal dune conservation and research. This is particularly the case for the wild European rabbit, a common naturalised invader of dune systems. In this study, the spatial distribution of wild European rabbits inhabiting a coastal dune system in Ireland is explored through geospatial mapping approaches using satellite and drone imagery, supported by spatial analyses and statistics. This reproducible approach has shown that rabbit activity fluctuates at inter-annual time scales that infer aligned changes in population, and that burrows clearly cluster in fixed dune habitats on landward slopes toward the rear of the dune system.

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