Doi: https://doi.org/10.13157/arla.71.2.2024.ra8
Authors: Alba ESTRADA, Lara MORENO-ZARATE, Miguel DELIBES-MATEOS and Beatriz ARROYO
E-mail: albaestradaa@gmail.com / alba.estrada@ipe.csic.es
Published: Volume 71.2, July 2024. Pages 337-357.
Language: English
Keywords: Corine Land Cover, GAMM, population trend, SACRE, STOC and Streptopelia turtur
Summary:
The European Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur is a migratory and globally threatened species. It needs both trees and open grassy areas for nesting and feeding and thus thrives in the ecotone between farmland and woodland. Therefore, changes in the availability of farmland and forest land uses may influence its abundance. We assessed Turtle Dove population trends in France and Spain from 2001 to 2019 based on national common bird monitoring programs, which confirmed a marked decline in both countries during the study period, steeper in the case of France. We also assessed changes in 15 land-use variables relevant to Turtle Dove ecology using Corine Land Cover data, and tested how changes were related to each other. These analyses showed that changes in farmland land uses were mostly explained by changes to other farmland land uses, whereas increases in shrubland areas were mainly associated with a decrease in woodland; increases in urban land were mainly at the expense of arable land. Finally, we assessed whether Turtle Dove population trends in both countries were related to land-use changes. Results indicated that, in Spain, initial Turtle Dove abundance was higher and the decline had been marked in quadrats where non-irrigated arable land, olive groves and broad-leaved forests had increased. The same result was obtained in quadrats where the availability of mixed forest had decreased, i.e., higher initial abundance and stronger declines. In France, the observed decline was proportionally lower in quadrats with larger increments of urban areas, but only because initial abundance was already extremely low. however, the proportion of deviance explained by land-use change variables was very low in both countries. This can be related to Turtle Dove populations being more affected by changes in habitat structure than in composition, or in relation to habitat management. Factors unrelated to habitat availability, such as hunting, may have further contributed to Turtle Dove decline.
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