Dorresteijn Ine, Hartel Tibor, Hanspach Jan, von Wehrden Henrik, Fischer Joern
Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Lüneburg, Germany.
PLoS One. 2013 Jun 19;8(6):e65236. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065236. Print 2013.
Land use change is a major threat to global biodiversity. Forest species face the dual threats of deforestation and intensification of forest management. In regions where forests are under threat, rural landscapes that retain structural components of mature forests potentially provide valuable additional habitat for some forest species. Here, we illustrate the habitat value of traditional wood pastures for a woodpecker assemblage of six species in southern Transylvania, Romania. Wood pastures are created by long-term stable silvo-pastoral management practices, and are composed of open grassland with scattered large, old trees. Because of their demanding habitat requirements, woodpeckers share habitat with many other bird species, and have been considered as possible indicator species for bird species diversity. We first compared woodpecker assemblages between forests and wood pastures. Second, we grouped features of wood pastures into three spatial contexts and addressed how these features related to the occurrence of three woodpecker species that are formally protected. Woodpecker species composition, but not the number of species, differed between forests and wood pastures, with the green woodpecker occurring more commonly in wood pastures, and the lesser spotted woodpecker more commonly in forests. Within wood pastures, the intermediate context (especially surrounding forest cover) best explained the presence of the grey-headed and middle spotted woodpecker. By contrast, variables describing local vegetation structure and characteristics of the surrounding landscape did not affect woodpecker occurrence in wood pastures. In contrast to many other parts of Europe, in which several species of woodpeckers have declined, the traditional rural landscape of Transylvania continues to provide habitat for several woodpecker species, both in forests and wood pastures. Given the apparent habitat value of wood pastures for woodpeckers we recommend wood pastures be explicitly considered in relevant policies of the European Union, namely the Habitats Directive and the EU Common Agricultural Policy.
土地利用变化是对全球生物多样性的重大威胁。森林物种面临着森林砍伐和森林管理集约化的双重威胁。在森林受到威胁的地区，保留成熟森林结构成分的乡村景观有可能为一些森林物种提供宝贵的额外栖息地。在此，我们阐述了罗马尼亚特兰西瓦尼亚南部传统木牧场对六种啄木鸟组合的栖息地价值。木牧场是通过长期稳定的林牧管理实践创建的，由开阔草地和散落的大型古树组成。由于对栖息地要求苛刻，啄木鸟与许多其他鸟类共享栖息地，并被视为鸟类物种多样性的潜在指示物种。我们首先比较了森林和木牧场之间的啄木鸟组合。其次，我们将木牧场的特征分为三种空间背景，并探讨这些特征与三种受正式保护的啄木鸟物种出现情况的关系。森林和木牧场之间的啄木鸟物种组成存在差异，但物种数量没有差异，绿啄木鸟在木牧场中更常见，而小斑啄木鸟在森林中更常见。在木牧场内部，中间背景（尤其是周边森林覆盖率）最能解释灰头啄木鸟和中斑啄木鸟的存在。相比之下，描述当地植被结构和周边景观特征的变量并未影响木牧场中啄木鸟的出现情况。与欧洲许多其他地区不同，在那些地区几种啄木鸟物种数量有所下降，而特兰西瓦尼亚的传统乡村景观继续为森林和木牧场中的几种啄木鸟物种提供栖息地。鉴于木牧场对啄木鸟具有明显的栖息地价值，我们建议在欧盟的相关政策中，即《栖息地指令》和《欧盟共同农业政策》中明确考虑木牧场。
