Assessing protected area network effectiveness through the temporal change in avian communities' composition
Abstrakt
Current rates of land use are driving temporal changes in avian communities. Thus, it is essential to properly designate and manage protected areas since they mitigate the adverse effects of temporal changes on species populations.
By using common bird monitoring data in Czechia from two periods (2005/2006 and 2014/2015), we calculated two indices of temporal change per each site, the Jaccard dissimilarity index (temporal dissimilarity between the community composition) and the difference in bird species richness between both periods (delta bird species richness). We tested three main predictions on temporal change in bird communities between protected and unprotected areas: (i) bird species richness will be higher inside protected areas, (ii) temporal changes in avian communities will be lower inside protected areas, (iii) the effect of protected areas will interact with land-use types, land-use richness, and altitudinal zones.
Bird species richness was higher inside protected areas in 2014/2015, ten years after the implementation of Natura 2000 in Czechia. Both indices of temporal change were lower inside protected areas.
The interactions of protected areas and land-use types on the indices of temporal change were not significant. However, interactions with altitudinal zones had a significant positive effect on the indices, i.e., in higher altitudes, delta bird species richness and higher dissimilarity levels.
Our study underlines the importance of protected areas for conservation by buffering the consequences of factors driving temporal community changes. Together, our results indicate a positive 'umbrella' effect of protected areas on avian communities that was likely facilitated by the implementation of Natura 2000.