We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Waterbird Species Are Highly Sensitive to Wetland Traits: Simulation-Based Conservation Strategies for the Birds of the Sicilian Wetlands (Italy).
- Authors
Ferrarini, Alessandro; Celada, Claudio; Gustin, Marco
- Abstract
Simple Summary: The Sicilian wetlands (Italy) witness the migration of millions of birds every year. The anthropic exploitation of these wetlands, along with the exacerbation of climate variables, could soon prevent the occurrence of many waterbird species, especially in summer, and is already impacting their abundance. Our study delivers scientifically supported planning strategies to assist with preserving and restoring the avian diversity of the Sicilian wetlands and provide wetland managers with an effective methodological framework to step down their regional-scale approach to allow for the place-based planning of existing and project wetlands. In this study, we (a) formulated a general hypothesis about how wetland (functional and structural) traits influence avian diversity, (b) turned this hypothesis into a non-parametric Bayesian network, (c) disentangled the direct and indirect effects of the variables influencing waterbird species, and (d) simulated the changes expected to the levels of avian diversity as a result of numerous counterfactual and management scenarios. We applied our framework to the Sicilian wetlands as a whole; then, we downscaled simulations locally to a wetland of particular interest (Pantano Bruno). We found that (1) waterbird species are highly sensitive to wetland traits; (2) wetland traits have both direct and indirect effects upon alpha avian diversity; (3) the direct and indirect effects of wetland traits can be contrasting; (4) water level fluctuations (benefit), diversions (cost), and salinity (cost) are key factors for waterbird conservation; (5) these wetlands have the potential for hosting a level of alpha avian diversity that is double the baseline (from 19 to 38 species); (6) these wetlands are prone to ecological collapse if all traits deteriorate (from 19 to 6 species per wetland); and (7) the ecological information gained at the regional scale can be properly downscaled to the local scale to make inferences on single wetlands.
- Subjects
ITALY; WATER birds; BIRD conservation; WETLANDS; BAYESIAN analysis; MIGRATION flyways; BIRD migration
- Publication
Biology (2079-7737), 2024, Vol 13, Issue 4, p242
- ISSN
2079-7737
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/biology13040242