Which bird species respond most to forest structural variation? : Implications for biodiversity indicators in Mediterranean forests
Miret Minard, Gabriel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Hermoso, Virgilio (Consorci Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC))
Brotons, Lluís (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Guillera-Arroita, Gurutzeta (Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas)
Lahoz-Monfort, José (University of Melbourne)
Morán Ordóñez, Alejandra (Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC))

Date:	2026
Abstract:	The Mediterranean Basin is a biodiversity hotspot facing increasing degradation due to climate change and unsustainable forest management. Although recent land-use changes have led to forest expansion, these forests are often structurally simple, limiting biodiversity and increasing wildfire risk. Enhancing forest structural complexity has become a key management goal, yet practical indicators for assessing biodiversity across large, forested regions remain limited. This study investigates how forest structural features affect bird abundance across a Mediterranean landscape in northeastern Iberia, aiming to identify species that can serve as indicators of Mediterranean forests quality. We modeled the abundance of 43 forest bird species as a function of remotely sensed forest structural attributes, composition, and regional environmental variables. Many generalist species showed low sensitivity to forest structure or yielded poorly fitting models, leaving only 16 species with models showing good fit to the data. For these species, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) and coefficient comparisons revealed that forest composition and elevation were the main drivers of bird abundance, while structural attributes were especially relevant for canopy and cavity specialists. Our findings highlight the hierarchical nature of species-habitat relationships, where broad environmental gradients shape species distributions, and local structural attributes modulate abundance. These results have direct implications for refining biodiversity indicators and designing regionally tailored forest management strategies. By identifying species most responsive to structural variation, this study contributes to more targeted and ecologically informed approaches to forest restoration in Mediterranean landscapes.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2020-119933RB-C22
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Forest ecology and management, Vol. 601 (February 2026) , art. 123364, ISSN 1872-7042

DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123364

11 p, 5.2 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles