Disentangling the seasonal effects of agricultural intensification on birds and bats in Mediterranean olive groves

Jiménez Navarro, Gerardo; Rodríguez Pérez, Javier; Melguizo Ruiz, Nereida; Silva, Bruno; Vasconcelos, Sasha; Beja, Pedro; Moreira, Francisco; Morgado, Rui; Barreiro, Silvia; Herrera, José M.

Disentangling the seasonal effects of agricultural intensification on birds and bats in Mediterranean olive groves

dc.contributor.author	Jiménez Navarro, Gerardo
dc.contributor.author	Rodríguez Pérez, Javier
dc.contributor.author	Melguizo Ruiz, Nereida
dc.contributor.author	Silva, Bruno
dc.contributor.author	Vasconcelos, Sasha
dc.contributor.author	Beja, Pedro
dc.contributor.author	Moreira, Francisco
dc.contributor.author	Morgado, Rui
dc.contributor.author	Barreiro, Silvia
dc.contributor.author	Herrera, José M.
dc.contributor.department	Ciencias	es_ES
dc.contributor.department	Zientziak	eu
dc.contributor.department	Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB	en
dc.date.accessioned	2023-03-29T11:23:54Z
dc.date.available	2023-03-29T11:23:54Z
dc.date.issued	2023
dc.date.updated	2023-03-29T11:03:04Z
dc.description.abstract	Assessing the spatio-temporal impact of agricultural intensification on species and communities is key for biodiversity conservation. Here, we investigated the seasonal effects of olive grove intensification at both local (farming practices and grove structural complexity) and landscape scale (land-cover diversity) on birds and bats, at species and community-level. Both groups were surveyed during spring, summer, and autumn in 60 sites representing varying levels of olive grove intensification throughout the Alentejo region (southern Portugal). At the local scale, the number of chemical applications was used as a proxy for the intensification of farming practices and a Structural Index, which accounted for within-grove variability in tree density and features, was used as a measure of grove structural complexity. At landscape scale, we quantified the proportion of the major land-cover types potentially affecting birds and bats. We found that the abundance of ca. 77% of the species analyzed (ca. 84% and 55% of birds and bats respectively) was negatively related to olive grove intensification in at least one season. The Structural Index was the most influential factor at both species and community-levels, especially for birds, with a consistent and strong effect across seasons. Chemical applications had a stronger negative effect on birds, whereas the amount of olive grove cover had a stronger detrimental effect on bats. Birds and bats showed a variable response to predictor variables depending on the season, particularly for the bat community. Our study shows differences in bird and bat responses associated with the spatio-temporal variability of the agricultural intensification components. On the one hand, birds and bats showed a seasonal pattern of association with the different components of olive grove intensification, probably due to their ecological and biological requirements. On the other hand, the responses of both groups also appear to be scale-dependent: while birds seem to respond to in-farm or local intensification more strongly, bats seem to be more influenced by landscape-scale simplification. Overall, we highlight the importance of the structural complexity of olive groves for birds and bats, an aspect that should be considered in the design of agricultural policies aiming to promote biodiversity conservation.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	This research was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under PTDC/AAG-REC/6480/2014 project and by the regional European Program Alentejo 2020 through the ALT20-03-0145-FEDER-343 000008 project. The study has also received funding from the project SHOWCASE within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 862480. Authors were supported by the FCT through fellowships and contracts SFRH/BD/133017/2017 (GJ-N), SFRH/BD/137803/2018 (BS), SFRH/BD/121388/2016 (SV), SFRH/BD/99746/2014 (RM), IF/00001/2015 (JMH) and IF/01053/2015 (FM). JRP was funded from “la Caixa” and “Caja Navarra” Foundation, LCF/PR/PR13/51080004.	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/zip	en
dc.identifier.citation	Jiménez-Navarro, G., Rodríguez-Pérez, J., Melguizo-Ruiz, N., Silva, B., Vasconcelos, S., Beja, P., Moreira, F., Morgado, R., Barreiro, S., & Herrera, J. M. (2023). Disentangling the seasonal effects of agricultural intensification on birds and bats in Mediterranean olive groves. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 343, 108280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2022.108280	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.agee.2022.108280
dc.identifier.issn	0167-8809
dc.identifier.uri	https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/44972
dc.language.iso	eng	en
dc.publisher	Elsevier	en
dc.relation.ispartof	Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 343 (2023) 108280	en
dc.relation.projectID	info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/European Commission/Horizon 2020 Framework Programme/862480/
dc.relation.publisherversion	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2022.108280
dc.rights	© 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.	en
dc.rights.accessRights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subject	Agricultural intensification	en
dc.subject	Biodiversity conservation in agroecosystems	en
dc.subject	Birds and bats	en
dc.subject	Grove structural complexity	en
dc.subject	Olive groves	en
dc.title	Disentangling the seasonal effects of agricultural intensification on birds and bats in Mediterranean olive groves	en
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.type.version	info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dspace.entity.type	Publication
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