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Assessing the role of landscape connectivity in recent woodpecker range expansion in Mediterranean Europe: forest management implications

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Abstract

Woodpecker species have significantly expanded their ranges in the last decades of the twentieth century in Mediterranean Europe, which seems to be closely related to forest maturation following large-scale decline in traditional uses. Here we assess the explicit role of forest landscape connectivity in the colonization of the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) and the Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) in Catalonia (NE Spain). For this purpose we combined data on breeding bird atlas (10 × 10 km; 1980–2000) and forest inventories (c. 1 × 1 km, 2000). Forest connectivity was measured through graph theory and habitat availability metrics (inter- and intra-patch connectivity) according to species median natal dispersal distances. The best regressions from a set of alternative models were selected based on AICc. Results showed that connectivity between areas of mature forests [diameter at breast height (dbh) ≥ 35 cm] affected Black Woodpecker colonization events. The probability of colonization of the Great Spotted Woodpecker was greater at localities near the sources of colonization in 1980 and with a high connectivity with other less developed forest patches (dbh < 35 cm). The spatial grain at which landscape connectivity was measured influenced the model performance according to the species dispersal abilities, with the species with the lower mobility (D. major) responding better to the forest connectivity patterns at finer spatial scales. Overall, it seems that both species could expand further in European Mediterranean forests in upcoming years but at slower rates if landscape connectivity according to species requirements does not continue to increase. Hence, a proactive and adaptive management should be carried out in order to preserve these species while considering the related major impacts of global change in Mediterranean Europe.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all volunteers that made possible the collection of the information for the Catalan Breeding Bird Atlas. Gerard Gorman and Jordi Camprodon helped determine the median dispersal distance for the black woodpecker. Miquel De Cáceres provided valuable comments on data analysis and two anonymous reviewers significantly improved a previous version of this manuscript. This work has received financial support from the Spanish Government and the European fund for regional development through the DECOFOR, BIOPRED, MONTES-CONSOLIDER and Restauración y Gestión Forestal projects. The NFI data were supplied by the Dirección General para la Biodiversidad (Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Medio Rural y Marino, Spain). A. Gil-Tena was funded by the Ministerio de Educación (Programa Nacional de Movilidad de RRHH, Plan Nacional de I-D + i 2008–2011, Spain).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biodiversity and Landscape Ecology Lab, Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia, Ctra. Sant Llorenç de Morunys km 2, 25280, Solsona, Spain

    Assu Gil-Tena & Lluís Brotons

  2. PaysaClim, UMR ECOBIO, CNRS Université de Rennes 1, Campus Beaulieu, bât 14b, 35042, Rennes, France

    Assu Gil-Tena & Françoise Burel

  3. Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Edifici C, Campus de Bellaterra, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

    Lluís Brotons

  4. Institut Català d’Ornitologia, Museu de Ciències Naturals, Zoologia, Passeig Picasso, s/n, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    Lluís Brotons

  5. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Harbord 25, Toronto, M5S 3G5, Canada

    Marie-Josée Fortin

  6. ETSI Montes, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Santiago Saura

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  1. Assu Gil-Tena
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  2. Lluís Brotons
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  3. Marie-Josée Fortin
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  4. Françoise Burel
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  5. Santiago Saura
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Correspondence to Assu Gil-Tena.

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Communicated by J. Müller.

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Appendix 2

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Gil-Tena, A., Brotons, L., Fortin, MJ. et al. Assessing the role of landscape connectivity in recent woodpecker range expansion in Mediterranean Europe: forest management implications. Eur J Forest Res 132, 181–194 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-012-0666-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-012-0666-x

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