Document type
Academic documents
Document subtype
PhD thesis
Title
Birds in cork oak woodlands: Improving management for biodiversity
Participants in the publication
Ana Isabel Leal (Author)
Dep. Biologia Animal
cE3c
Summary
Cork oak woodlands (montados) are agro-forestry-pastoral systems that, in general, conciliate social and economical value with a rich biodiversity, representing remarkable components of Mediterranean landscapes.\nThe overall goal of this thesis was to investigate the effects on biodiversity of management practices widely used in montados. Passerine birds were used as models, since they are a prominent group in montados, occupy a broad diversity of ecological niches, and are strongly responsive to changes in the environment. Starting with management practices applied to trees, we investigated (1) the impact of cork extraction, and found that only birds that forage directly on cork are affected by this activity. Consequently, cork extraction is compatible with maintaining a rich bird community. We also analysed (2) the consequences of tree pruning and concluded that it does not have an effect on overall species diversity, although foliage-gleaning species tend to be considerably less abundant in recently-pruned areas. On a landscape scale, we assessed (3) the effect of the presence of fragments of olive groves and riparian vegetation in montados dominated landscapes, and found that it would be desirable to reverse the decline of such habitats. Finally (4) we manipulated the extension of riparian vegetation and olive groves using spatially-explicit modelling to generate future scenarios, and concluded that simple measures like protecting riparian habitats and traditional olive groves could have positive effects on birds of montados landscapes.\nMontados are threatened by an increasing number of factors that extend from the lack of natural regeneration, to pressure from the decreasing market share of cork bottle stoppers, which can lead to changes in their structure and thus threaten biodiversity. The results of this study are a contribution for a science based improvement of management practices of montados, aiming to preserve this system by facilitating the conciliation between economic exploitation and wildlife conservation.
Date of Submisson/Request
2012-05-12
Date of Publication
2012-05-12
Institution
FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS DA UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA
Publication Identifiers