Temporal trends of land-use favourability for the strongly declining little bustard: assessing the role of protected areas.

ABSTRACT: The little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) is a steppe bird strongly and negatively influenced by agricultural intensification in Europe. Here, we use the little bustard as a model species to examine how favourability (relative occurrence likelihood of a species based on environmental characteristics, such as habitat availability) varies regionally with degree of protection in north-western Spain. The Natura2000 network is one of the main biodiversity conservation tools of the European Union, aiming to protect areas hosting species of conservation concern from unfavourable land-use changes. The network covers many landscapes across the continent, including farmland. Additionally, we examine the relationship between trends in land-use favourability and little bustard population trends over a

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez Del Portillo D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10771766 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature