title: A resource-based modelling framework to assess habitat suitability for steppe birds in semiarid Mediterranean agricultural systems.
abstract: European agriculture is undergoing widespread changes that are likely to have profound impacts on farmland biodiversity. The development of tools that allow an assessment of the potential biodiversity effects of different land-use alternatives before changes occur is fundamental to guiding management decisions. In this study, we develop a resource-based model framework to estimate habitat suitability for target species, according to simple information on species' key resource requirements (diet, foraging habitat and nesting site), and examine whether it can be used to link land-use and local species' distribution. We take as a study case four steppe bird species in a lowland area of the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula. We also compare the performance of our resource-based approach to that obtained through habitat-based models relating species' occurrence and land-cover variables. Further, we use our resource-based approach to predict the effects that change in farming systems can have on farmland bird habitat suitability and compare these predictions with those obtained using the habitat-based models. Habitat suitability estimates generated by our resource-based models performed similarly (and better for one study species) than habitat based-models when predicting current species distribution. Moderate prediction success was achieved for three out of four species considered by resource-based models and for two of four by habitat-based models. Although, there is potential for improving the performance of resource-based models, they provide a structure for using available knowledge of the functional links between agricultural practices, provision of key resources and the response of organisms to predict potential effects of changing land-uses in a variety of context or the impacts of changes such as altered management practices that are not easily incorporated into habitat-based models.
authors.affiliation: Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cardador
authors.affiliation: Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Catalonia, Spain; CREAF, Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Miquel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Cáceres
authors.affiliation: Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bota
authors.affiliation: Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Giralt
authors.affiliation: Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: Fabián
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Casas
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC)-(CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ciudad Real, Spain.
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Arroyo
authors.affiliation: Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mougeot
authors.affiliation: Departament de Producció Vegetal i Ciència Forestal, Universidad de Lleida (UDL), Lleida, Spain.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cantero-Martínez
authors.affiliation: Departament de Producció Vegetal i Ciència Forestal, Universidad de Lleida (UDL), Lleida, Spain.
authors.forename: Judit
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moncunill
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Simon J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.affiliation: Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Catalonia, Spain; CREAF, Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Lluís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brotons
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D065948:Grassland; D019083:Mediterranean Region; D008954:Models, Biological