A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Interactions between climate warming and management actions determining bird community change in protected areas
Authors: Jonas, Leonie; Brommer, Jon E.; Jung, Martin; Baláž, Michal; Borg, John J.; Božič, Luka; Clausen, Preben; Derouaux, Antoine; Devos, Koen; Domșa, Cristian; Faragó, Sándor; Fitzgerald, Niamh; Georgiev, Valeri; Haas, Fredrik; Hornman, Menno; Ieronymidou, Christina; Langendoen, Tom; Lehikoinen, Aleksi S.; Lindner, Kim; Luigujõe, Leho; Meissner, Włodzimierz; Mikuska, Tibor; Molina, Blas; Moniz, Filipe; Musilová, Zuzana; Portolou, Danae; Quaintenne, Gwenaël; Rantanen, Juhani; Šniaukšta, Laimonas; Stīpniece, Antra; Teufelbauer, Norbert; Zenatello, Marco; Gaget, Elie
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Publication year: 2025
Journal: Biological Conservation
Journal name in source: Biological Conservation
Article number: 111213
Volume: 308
ISSN: 0006-3207
eISSN: 1873-2917
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111213
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111213
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/492304730
Biodiversity is increasingly negatively affected by climate warming, making this issue a major conservation concern. Many bird species respond to warming temperatures by shifting distribution ranges, but these shifts often lag behind temperature changes. Protected areas (PAs) can facilitate such shifts, but a growing body of literature suggests that not all PAs facilitate climate warming responses equally, as realized management actions can differ. Here, we study waterbird community change as a response to climate warming in relation to targets of conservation projects implemented in Natura 2000 protected areas across the EU. We combine long-term waterbird survey data (i.e. International Waterbird Census) with data on conservation funded by the EU LIFE program, the main EU instrument for conservation. We used the community temperature index to measure thermal community changes over 28 years. We found community adjustment to climate warming lagged behind temperature. However, community change was twice as fast in sites were conservation was targeting wetland habitats compared with sites without habitat conservation. Targeting waterbirds directly did not lead to variation in community change compared with other types of species conservation. Our results imply that on the management level conservation targeting a community's habitat (rather than targeting the species group directly) is more likely to provide benefits for community adjustment to climate warming. This study demonstrates that management actions currently not targeting climate warming impacts on biodiversity, have the potential to support species responding to climate warming. However, conservation strategies need to be adapted to the challenges arising with climate warming.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
Funding information in the publication:
We acknowledge all the volunteers and professionals involved in the International Waterbird Census, which made this research possible. We thank the Kone foundation for funding (Grant 202103360), as well as the Turku Collegium for Science, Medicine and Technology. This research was also funded through Biodiversa+, under the 2021–2022 BiodivProtect program, with the following funding organizations: the Ministry of Environment of Finland (VN/7162/2023), the Swedish Research Council (Swedish Univ. Agric. Sci.: 2022-01752), the Research Council of Norway (Norwegian Instit. for Nature Res.: 3000593), the Innovation Fund Denmark (Aarhus Univ.: 1159-00033B), the Swiss National Science Foundation (Swiss Ornith. Intit.: 20BD21_209665), and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Ecol. Fores. Appl. Res. Centr.: PCI2022-135056-2). The authors wish to acknowledge CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland, for computational resources. We thank the reviewers for constructive feedback that helped improve earlier drafts of this manuscript. AL received funding from National Research Council Finland (grant 362647).
