Assessing the response of open-habitat bird species to landscape changes in Mediterranean mosaics |
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Authors: | Sara Vallecillo Lluís Brotons Sergi Herrando |
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Institution: | (1) Biodiversity Section, Forest Technology Centre of Catalonia, Pujada del Seminari s/n, Solsona, Catalonia, 25280, Spain;(2) Catalan Ornithological Institute, Museum of Zoology, Passeig Picasso s/n, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08003, Spain |
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Abstract: | In Mediterranean landscapes, wildfires and land abandonment lead to major landscape modifications primarily by favouring the
presence of open, shrub-like habitats. At present, we know very little of how these changes affect patterns of species occurrence
at the landscape scale. In this work, we analyse the impact of these landscape changes on the occurrence patterns of eight
open-habitat species by using presence/absence data collected in the Catalan Breeding Bird Atlas (NE Spain). We compared the
species occurrence patterns along habitat gradients for three different landscape settings: a semi-permanent farmland–forest
landscape (i.e. with variable proportions of farmland and forests) and two landscape settings which mimic those favoured by
land abandonment and fire: farmland–shrubland landscapes and mosaic landscapes (i.e. variable proportions of farmland and
forest coexisting with a shrubby matrix). In the forest–farmland landscape, we found a dominant negative effect of adjacent
forest on species occurrence rates. This overall effect mostly disappeared in farmland–shrubland landscapes composed by two
habitats with more similar vegetation structure. In mosaic landscapes, the general negative effect of forest habitats also
appeared to be partially compensated by the presence of a shrubby matrix. Our results suggest that landscape gradients induced
by fire and to some degree also land abandonment, mainly favouring availability of shrublands may potentially enhance the
resilience of threatened open-habitat species at the landscape scale by increasing the range of potential habitats used. The
analysis of species-occurrence patterns along predefined habitat gradients appears as a useful tool to predict potential species
responses to land use change. |
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Keywords: | Response curves Land abandonment Fire disturbance Heterogeneity Landscape context Habitat selection Habitat gradient Open habitat |
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