RT journal article
T1 Disentangling the seasonal effects of agricultural intensification on birds and bats in Mediterranean olive groves
A1 Jiménez-Navarro, Gerardo
A1 Rodríguez-Pérez, Javier
A1 Melguizo, Nereida
A1 Antunes Silva, Bruno
A1 Vasconcelos, Sasha
A1 Beja, Pedro
A1 Moreira, Francisco
A1 Morgado, Rui
A1 Barreiro, Sílvia
A1 Herrera Vega, José Manuel
A2 Biología
K1 Agricultural intensification
K1 Olive groves
K1 Birds and bats
K1 Grove structural complexity
K1 Biodiversity conservation in agroecosystems
AB Assessing the spatio-temporal impact of agricultural intensification on species and communities is key forbiodiversity 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 sitesrepresenting varying levels of olive grove intensification throughout the Alentejo region (southern Portugal). Atthe local scale, the number of chemical applications was used as a proxy for the intensification of farmingpractices and a Structural Index, which accounted for within-grove variability in tree density and features, wasused as a measure of grove structural complexity. At landscape scale, we quantified the proportion of the majorland-cover types potentially affecting birds and bats. We found that the abundance of ca. 77% of the speciesanalyzed (ca. 84% and 55% of birds and bats respectively) was negatively related to olive grove intensification inat 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 strongernegative effect on birds, whereas the amount of olive grove cover had a stronger detrimental effect on bats. Birdsand bats showed a variable response to predictor variables depending on the season, particularly for the batcommunity. Our study shows differences in bird and bat responses associated with the spatio-temporal variabilityof the agricultural intensification components. On the one hand, birds and bats showed a seasonal pattern ofassociation with the different components of olive grove intensification, probably due to their ecological andbiological 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 influencedby landscape-scale simplification. Overall, we highlight the importance of the structural complexity of olivegroves for birds and bats, an aspect that should be considered in the design of agricultural policies aiming topromote biodiversity conservation.
PB Elsevier
SN 0167-8809
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/37468
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/37468
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 10-nov-2026