Understanding how species interact with their habitats is central to predicting biodiversity responses to environmental change and to designing effective conservation strategies. This thesis applies spatial ecological methods to examine species–habitat relationships across contrasting ecosystems and to demonstrate how these insights can support evidence-based conservation and rewilding. The research is based on the concept of ecological niche, which links species distribution to environmental conditions, biotic interactions, and spatial structure.

Using passive acoustic monitoring combined with high-resolution spatial data, the first two case studies investigate early-season habitat selection in two boreal forest specialists, the Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus) and the Willow Tit (Poecile montanus).

Crested Tit occurrence increased with pine resources (needle biomass) and decreased with proximity to human settlements.

Willow Tits showed scale-consistent positive associations with the area of pine-dominated peatlands across local (100 m) and broader (400 m) spatial scales. These findings demonstrate that key ecological requirements of specialist birds are governed by fine-grained habitat use, rather than by coarse habitat features captured by conventional management indicators.

The third case study extends the analytical framework to lowland agricultural landscapes in England to evaluate passive rewilding potential under the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) policy. By integrating land-cover patterns with deer browsing pressure, the study identifies where natural regeneration is most feasible and quantifies the potential contribution of rewilding to national biodiversity targets.

Collectively, this thesis demonstrates how spatially explicit ecological tools—from acoustic monitoring to landscape-scale modelling—can link ecological theory with conservation action and support resilient species populations and ecosystems in a rapidly changing world.