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Can birds play a role as High Nature Value indicators of montado system?

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Abstract

Montados form a heterogeneous landscape of wooded matrix dominated by cork and/or holm oak with open areas characterized by fuzzy boundaries. Montado supports a high biological diversity associated to low intensity management and a landscape diversity provided by a continuous gradient of land cover. Among other features this permits the classification of montados as a High Nature Value (HNV) system. We assessed the role of birds as HNV indicators for montado, and tested several bird groups—farmland, edge, forest generalists and forest specialists species; and some universal indicators such as species conservation status, Shannon’s diversity index and species richness. Our study areas covered the North–South distribution of cork oak in Portugal, and we surveyed the breeding bird communities across 117 sampling sites. In addition to variables related to management and sanitary status, we considered variables that characterize the landscape heterogeneity inside the montado—trees and shrub density and richness of woody vegetation. Our results suggest that specific bird guilds can be used as HNV indicators of particular typologies of montado, and highlight the need to develop an indicator that could be transversally applied to all types of montado.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped to improve the manuscript. We also thank to Rui Lourenço, Pedro Salgueiro and Luís Gomes for invaluable comments and suggestions. This study was partially supported by Companhia das Lezírias S.A. and by the Portuguese Science Foundation through the Doctoral grants SFRH/BD/81602/2011 (Carlos Godinho) and SFRH/BD/87340/2012 (Pedro Pereira).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAAM – Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas, Universidade de Évora, Núcleo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7002-554, Évora, Portugal

    C. Godinho, P. Pereira & J. E. Rabaça

  2. LabOr – Laboratório de Ornitologia, ICAAM, Universidade de Évora, 7002-554, Évora, Portugal

    L. Catarino, C. Godinho, P. Pereira & J. E. Rabaça

  3. Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de Évora, 7002-554, Évora, Portugal

    J. E. Rabaça

  4. Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    A. Luís

Authors
  1. L. Catarino
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  2. C. Godinho
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  3. P. Pereira
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  4. A. Luís
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  5. J. E. Rabaça
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Godinho.

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Catarino, L., Godinho, C., Pereira, P. et al. Can birds play a role as High Nature Value indicators of montado system?. Agroforest Syst 90, 45–56 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-014-9761-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-014-9761-y

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