Abstract
European Alpine landscapes are facing marked land-use changes. On the one hand, outdoor winter recreation is spreading, with ski infrastructure degrading fragile mountain habitats, and snowsports causing disturbance and stress to wildlife. On the other hand, the abandonment of traditional grazing practices on timberline grasslands is leading to their encroachment by shrubs and forest, which decreases habitat heterogeneity and negatively affects biodiversity. We used the black grouse, a declining key indicator species of the Alpine timberline ecosystem, to assess optimal breeding habitat characteristics, with the goal of providing guidelines for appropriate restoration. Using Mixed Effects Logistic Regression analyses, we compared habitat features both at visited and at pseudo-absence locations within individual home ranges in order to determine the optimal habitat for males and females. Horizontal and vertical structural heterogeneity within all vegetation layers was the best predictor of occurrence for both sexes. In contrast, vegetation composition affected the presence of females, but not that of males. Females preferred a diverse, complex mosaic consisting of isolated mature coniferous trees and scattered small regenerating trees, associated with shrub cover (Ericacea) and Alpine meadows (Nardion). Chick-rearing females furthermore avoided roads, forest tracks and walking paths. The optimal predicted proportions of habitat types obtained from the model provide guidelines for the restoration of timberline ecosystems through corrective forestry measures and/or adapted grazing practices. These measures are likely to also benefit other Alpine timberline biodiversity.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank S. Mettaz, S. Wirthner, G. Obrist, N. Reusser, F. Bancala, J. Beguin, R. Egli, U. Kormann, P. Nyffeler, P.-L. Obrist and C. Buchli for assistance in the field; G. Wittwer, J. Zbinden, M. Häusler, N. Zbinden and two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript; M. Schaub and F. Abadi Gebreselassie for providing advice on statistics. The Parco Naturale Veglia Devero, Italy, and the Naturschutzzentrum Aletsch provided free accommodation, and the ski resorts of Verbier and Les Diablerets provided free access to their facilities. A. and P. Buhayer corrected the language. This research was funded by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation to R.A. Additional funding was obtained from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, the Cantons of Valais, Vaud and Ticino, as well as a European Interreg IIIa grant.
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Communicated by C. Gortázar
Patrick Patthey and Natalina Signorell contributed equally to the study.
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Explanatory variables (n = 91) mapped in the field, regrouped in main categories (in bold) and sub-categories (roman numerals), with format (continuous, ordinal, categorical), function (quadratic or linear, for both continuous and ordinal variables) and levels (categorical variables, see nomenclature in the respective column; ordinal variables, 0–3, or 0–4). Variables belonging to the same sub-category are marked with vertical bars. A variable followed by brackets indicates that this variable has been eliminated in favour of the variable number given in parentheses. See text for more details (DOC 145 kb)
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Patthey, P., Signorell, N., Rotelli, L. et al. Vegetation structural and compositional heterogeneity as a key feature in Alpine black grouse microhabitat selection: conservation management implications. Eur J Wildl Res 58, 59–70 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-011-0540-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-011-0540-z