ORNITHOLOGICAL ATLAS DATA - A REVIEW OF USES AND LIMITATIONS

Despite being a relatively recent development, the mapping of bird dis tributions using grid-based atlases has become one of the most frequen t forms of ornithological survey. The data generated by ornithological atlases have a number of potential uses which are reviewed in this pa per under the following categories: (1) education and recreation, (2) documenting distribution and population for conservation purposes, (3) documenting changes in population and range, (4) providing a framewor k for survey design, (5) assessing bird-environment associations, (6) generating hypotheses about causes of range change and (7) investigati ng theoretical aspects of ecology. The strengths and weaknesses of atl as data are considered in each case. We conclude that, despite a numbe r of statistical and methodological problems which need to be addresse d, atlases have become an indispensable tool for assessing large-scale patterns of bird distribution and distributional change and for answe ring a wide range of questions relating to them. They have many applic ations in ecology and conservation and should be regarded as an essent ial complement to annual population monitoring schemes and fine-scale studies of bird-habitat relationships.