A niche-based framework to assess current monitoring of European forest birds and guide indicator species' selection.

ABSTRACT: Concern that European forest biodiversity is depleted and declining has provoked widespread efforts to improve management practices. To gauge the success of these actions, appropriate monitoring of forest ecosystems is paramount. Multi-species indicators are frequently used to assess the state of biodiversity and its response to implemented management, but generally applicable and objective methodologies for species' selection are lacking. Here we use a niche-based approach, underpinned by coarse quantification of species' resource use, to objectively select species for inclusion in a pan-European forest bird indicator. We identify both the minimum number of species required to deliver full resource coverage and the most sensitive species' combination, and explore the trade-off between two

SUBMITTER: Wade AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4018337 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature