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Bird species in Mediterranean pine plantations exhibit different characteristics to those in natural reforested woodlands

  • Population ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Passive woodland regeneration following cropland abandonment and pine plantations are two major approaches for vegetation restoration in agricultural landscapes in the Mediterranean Basin. We compared the effects of these two contrasting approaches on local bird density in central Spain on the basis of species characteristics, including regional density, habitat breadth, life-history traits and plumage colouration. Local bird density increased with regional density and habitat breadth in both woodland and pine plantation plots following macroecological patterns of bird abundance and distribution. In woodlands, dichromatic species were more abundant than monochromatic species and bird density increased with the intensity of territory defense and as the proportion of plumage colour generated by pheomelanin decreased. Contrary to our prediction, this latter observation suggests that woodlands may induce higher levels of physiological stress in birds than pine plantations even though these represent a novel habitat change. In pine plantations, sedentary species were more abundant than migratory species and bird density was negatively related to body and egg mass. These traits of bird species in pine plantations are characteristic of successful invaders. The variation in bird density explained by phylogeny was twice as high in pine plantations as in woodlands, suggesting that pine plantations limit accessibility to some clades. Our results support, from an evolutionary perspective, the described inability of pine plantations on cropland to maintain or increase bird diversity in Mediterranean agricultural landscapes.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Irene Razola and Jorge Meltzer for their assistance when surveying the birds, and to Luis M. Carrascal for suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript. This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (projects CGL2007-60533-BOS and CGL2010-18312) and the Madrid Government REMEDINAL project (S2009AMB-1783).

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  1. Ismael Galván

    Present address: Laboratoire d’Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, CNRS UMR 8079, Université Paris-Sud 11, Bâtiment 362, 91405, Orsay Cedex, France

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  1. Department of Ecology, Universidad de Alcalá, Edificio de Ciencias, Ctra. de Barcelona km 33’600, 28871, Alcalá de Henares, Spain

    Ismael Galván & José M. Rey Benayas

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  1. Ismael Galván
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Correspondence to Ismael Galván.

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Communicated by Esa Lehikoinen.

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Galván, I., Rey Benayas, J.M. Bird species in Mediterranean pine plantations exhibit different characteristics to those in natural reforested woodlands. Oecologia 166, 305–316 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1849-0

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