Potential enlargement of the European roller’ breeding range in the Carpathian Basin
The decline of farmland and grassland biodiversity is one the major conservation concerns nowadays. The European roller is a secondary cavity nester species typically inhabiting grasslands and farmlands. It has suffered large declines both in size and range of the population since the 1960s, but thi...
Elmentve itt :
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| Dokumentumtípus: | Cikk |
| Megjelent: |
2020
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| Sorozat: | JOURNAL FOR NATURE CONSERVATION
56 |
| Tárgyszavak: | |
| doi: | 10.1016/j.jnc.2020.125841 |
| mtmt: | 31338253 |
| Online Access: | http://publicatio.bibl.u-szeged.hu/36589 |
| Tartalmi kivonat: | The decline of farmland and grassland biodiversity is one the major conservation concerns nowadays. The European roller is a secondary cavity nester species typically inhabiting grasslands and farmlands. It has suffered large declines both in size and range of the population since the 1960s, but this negative trend has been reversed in several countries by applying direct conservation actions. As part of this study we aimed to evaluate the current habitat suitability of the historical breeding area of the species within Hungary, to promote the recolonization and the enlargement of the breeding range in the Carpathian Basin, and to evaluate the potential significance of the Natura 2000 network in this process. We applied species distribution modelling (SDM) based on nest-box occupancy data to map potential areas for nest-box supplementation. Grasslands, broad-leaved forests and agricultural sites with significant areas of natural vegetation were found to be the most important predictors. The majority (71%) of the predicted area has no occupied nest-boxes. A significantly larger proportion of grid cells with archive data still preserve suitable land cover composition for rollers, than cells where former breeding wasn’t confirmed, and only a small proportion of former breeding area has become completely unsuitable for the species. Our results indicate large overlaps between the Natura 2000 network and the predicted area, of wich 28.3% overlaps with Special Protection Area (SPA) sites and 23.8% with Special Area of Conservation (SAC/SCI) sites. Our study highlights the importance of promoting the recolonization of the European roller in the Transdanubian region of Hungary and provides a useful tool for direct conservation planning for the species. Our results also suggest that a coordinated network of protected areas such as Natura 2000 can potentially serve as core areas in the recolonization processes. |
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| Terjedelem/Fizikai jellemzők: | 8 |
| ISSN: | 1617-1381 |