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Rural abandoned landscapes and bird assemblages: winners and losers in the rewilding of a marginal mountain area (NW Spain)

Regional Environmental Change volume 16, pages 199–211 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

In many regions of Europe, large-scale socio-economic changes have led to the abandonment of rural activities and a gradual takeover of natural vegetation. It is important to assess the relative positive and negative effects of land abandonment on particular areas where the low-intensity farming is no longer socially or economically viable in order to quantify the potential conservation costs and benefits of a rewilding as a land-use management policy. During the period 2000–2010, we studied the land-use/land-cover changes in an abandoned mountain landscape (Galicia, NW Spain) and evaluated the effects on breeding bird occurrence and distribution. For this purpose, we analysed remotely sensed data-derived maps in combination with data obtained from bird censuses carried out in 2000 and 2010 at both landscape and census plot scale. The results revealed a gradient of change from bare ground and open shrubland to closed shrubland and woodland. Thirteen shrubland and forest bird species showed a significant increase (including species of conservation concern such as Turtle Dove, Dartford Warbler and Western Bonelli’s Warbler), while four ecotone and open-habitat species (e.g. Red-backed Shrike) showed a significant negative trend. In conclusion, rewilding appears to have overall positive effects on biodiversity and should be considered by policy makers as alternative land-use strategy in marginal mountain areas, particularly if they have been historically affected by wildfires. Fire management aimed at favouring the creation of small burned areas in progressively closed landscapes derived from rewilding may be a complementary alternative to maintain open habitats in these areas.

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Notes

  1. Gillson et al. (2011) defined rewilding as the passive management of ecological succession with the goal of reducing human control and restoring natural ecosystem processes.

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Acknowledgments

The surveys carried out during spring 2000 were funded by Xunta de Galicia, and those carried out in spring of 2010 were associated with the project INTERREG-POCTEC (“NATURA Xurés-Gerês”). Adrián Regos was financially supported by research projects BIONOVEL (CGL2011-29539/BOS) and MONTES (CSD2008-00040) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. This study was also supported by the research project DinaCliVe (CGL2012-33927) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. We also wish to thank the Catalan Government Grant SGR 2009-1511. A. Gil-Tena was funded by the Ministerio de Educación (Programa Nacional de Movilidad de RRHH, Plan Nacional de I+D+i 2008–2011 and Subprograma Juan de la Cierva (JDC) 2012, Spain). Xavier Pons is recipient of an ICREA Acadèmia excellence in Research Grant (2011–2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forest Science Center of Catalonia (CEMFOR-CTFC), Carretera vella de Sant Llorenç de Morunys km 2, 25280, Solsona, Catalonia, Spain

    Adrián Regos, Asunción Gil-Tena & Lluís Brotons

  2. CREAF, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

    Adrián Regos, Asunción Gil-Tena & Lluís Brotons

  3. Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology, University of Santiago de Compostela, Campus Sur, 15702, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Jesús Domínguez

  4. Dep. Biologia Animal, Vegetal i Ecologia, Edifici C, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Miquel Ninyerola

  5. Dep. Geografia, Edifici B, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain

    Xavier Pons

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  1. Adrián Regos
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Correspondence to Adrián Regos.

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Regos, A., Domínguez, J., Gil-Tena, A. et al. Rural abandoned landscapes and bird assemblages: winners and losers in the rewilding of a marginal mountain area (NW Spain). Reg Environ Change 16, 199–211 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-014-0740-7

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Keywords

  • Land abandonment
  • Wildfire
  • Species of European Conservation Concern
  • Landsat imagery
  • Co-inertia analysis
  • Land-use policy