SPEDILA · Determinants of species distribution in dynamic landscapes: Mediterranean bird communities and fire disturbance

Final Activity Report Summary - SPEDILA (Determinants of species distribution in dynamic landscapes: Mediterranean bird communities and fire disturbance)

We know with a great degree of detail the response of early succession species to local scale changes in vegetation cover and structure. However, contrary to forest communities, we know very little about the responses of species from open habitats to processes occurring at larger spatial scales. Three main factors may influence colonisation and persistence of these species in new habitat patches created by disturbances such as fire: dispersal capability (ability to reach a patch), negative effects of fragmentation on the persistence of the species in a patch, and positive effects of landscape context (e.g. heterogeneity) favouring the persistence of the species in the landscape. The general objective of the project was to identify the role of the ecological processes that determine species distribution in open habitats. We focussed on early succession species in highly spatio-temporal heterogeneous systems and used birds of open habitats in Mediterranean landscapes as study models. We worked simultaneously at different spatial scales to capture the dynamics of species distributions in disturbance driven landscapes. The present project has combined and integrated approaches from different disciplines, namely landscape ecology, biogeography, community ecology and biogeographic modelling to better capture the ecological processes involved to allow generating tools useful in conservation biology. At a local scale, the abundance of the open habitat bird species in recently burnt areas was mainly associated with sparse vegetation mainly located on southern slopes. Moreover, in addition to the availability of suitable habitat, spatial patterns had a critical role on the distribution of the species on this large, recently burnt area, thus suggesting colonisation after fire is a long lasting process. Overall, our results supported the hypothesis that wild fires, especially those affecting open woodlands or shrubby areas play a critical role in the ecology of the threatened open habitat species in Mediterranean dynamic landscapes and have contributed to the expansion of the species in areas such as Catalonia during the last 20 years. Furthermore, colonisation patterns have a strong spatial component suggesting that this process is limited not only by the presence of appearing new burnt habitat but also by specific dispersal constraints. We suggest that, for several European threatened species of associated with open habitats, burnt areas may to some extent compensate for widespread farmland loss or reduction in habitat quality and offer good management opportunities.

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