How to fit the distribution of apex scavengers into land-abandonment scenarios? The Cinereous vulture in the Mediterranean biome

Ecological restoration and rewilding: two approaches with complementary goals?

As we enter the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) and address the urgent need to protect and restore ecosystems and their ecological functions at large scales, rewilding has been brought into the limelight. Interest in this discipline is thus increasing, with a large number of conceptual scientific papers published in recent years. Increasing enthusiasm has led to discussions and debates in the scientific community about the differences between ecological restoration and rewilding. The main goal of this review is to compare and clarify the position of each field. Our results show that despite some differences (e.g. top-down versus bottom-up and functional versus taxonomic approaches) and notably with distinct goals - recovery of a defined historically determined target ecosystem versus recovery of natural processes with often no target endpoint - ecological restoration and rewilding have a common scope: the recovery of ecosystems following anthropogenic degradation. The goals of ecological restoration and rewilding have expanded with the progress of each field. However, it is unclear whether there is a paradigm shift with ecological restoration moving towards rewilding or vice versa. We underline the complementarity in time and in space of ecological restoration and rewilding. To conclude, we argue that reconciliation of these two fields of nature conservation to ensure complementarity could create a synergy to achieve their common scope.

Apex scavengers from different European populations converge at threatened savannah landscapes

Over millennia, human intervention has transformed European habitats mainly through extensive livestock grazing. “Dehesas/Montados” are an Iberian savannah-like ecosystem dominated by oak-trees, bushes and grass species that are subject to agricultural and extensive livestock uses. They are a good example of how large-scale, low intensive transformations can maintain high biodiversity levels as well as socio-economic and cultural values. However, the role that these human-modified habitats can play for individuals or species living beyond their borders is unknown. Here, using a dataset of 106 adult GPS-tagged Eurasian griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) monitored over seven years, we show how individuals breeding in western European populations from Northern, Central, and Southern Spain, and Southern France made long-range forays (LRFs) of up to 800 km to converge in the threatened Iberian “dehesas” to forage. There, extensive livestock and wild ungulates provide large amounts of carcasses, which are available to scavengers from traditional exploitations and rewilding processes. Our results highlight that maintaining Iberian “dehesas” is critical not only for local biodiversity but also for long-term conservation and the ecosystem services provided by avian scavengers across the continent.

Management Actions Promote Human-Wildlife Coexistence in Highly Anthropized Landscapes: The Case of an Endangered Avian Scavenger

Anthropized landscapes are characterized by various human activities related to resource extraction, recreational activities, and urbanization, among others. Conservation of species living in such landscapes is challenging due to the lack of compatibility between wildlife and human needs, which can create win-lose scenarios for target species. Therefore, adequate management practices are necessary to reduce conflicts and promote coexistence between wildlife and human beings. Here, we test the effectiveness of management measures on the productivity of an Egyptian vulture population living in an anthropized region of Northern Spain by using long-term monitoring data (2000–2020). During the first decade, we demonstrated that disturbance events negatively affected the species reproduction. Therefore, in 2010 we started a management plan in which we first established a basis for the species protection, and second we developed management actions to avoid or reduce the impact of potential disturbance events on the Egyptian vulture’ breeding. We observed that almost half of the disturbances detected after the management was related to resource extraction activities such as forestry (40.6%). Management measures effectively increased productivity (84 vs 137, chicks fledged successfully before and after, respectively) and the breeding success of the pairs in which the disturbances were detected and stopped (66.7%) was much higher than those non-managed and non-stopped in time (17.4%). Moreover, we estimated that 44 nestlings (32.1%) would have died without management actions during the second decade. Overall, our work demonstrated that collaborative networks can design and implement effective management measures for endangered territorial species, taking into account all agents involved (policymakers, rangers, stakeholders, general public, and researchers) in the conservation area. Thereby, it alleviates conflicts in human-dominated ecosystems and generates a balanced scenario that favors long-term sustainable human-wildlife coexistence.

Future scenarios impact on land use change and habitat quality in Lithuania

Anticipating future land use and land cover (LULC) changes can improve our knowledge of the complexity of human-environment interactions that lead to transformations in the landscape. Therefore, it is key to understand these LULC changes under different scenarios and how they affect habitat quality (HQ) a key indicator for ecosystem services (ES) supply quality. This work aims to study the impacts of LULC changes under different scenarios: business as usual (A0), urbanisation (A1), land abandonment and afforestation (A2) and agriculture intensification (A3) in 2050. To simulate future LULC changes we applied the Cellular Automata (CA) method, and to assess HQ, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model was used. Spatial autocorrelation was assessed with a Moran's I index and the Getis Ord* hotspot analysis. The result showed that the LULC model calibration and validation were accurate (80%). Between 1990 and 2018 there was an increase in urban areas and forest and woodlands, which was reflected in the A0 scenario in 2050. Under the A1 scenario there was an increase in the urban area (4628 ha) compared to 2018, and in the most important cities (e.g., Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda) in the scenario A2 there was an increase of 375,820 ha of woodland and forest. Finally, under the scenario A3, a large growth in cropland area (884,030 ha) was identified. HQ model had a better validation using three cover density data (r² = 0.67), than with imperviousness (r² = 0.26). A2 scenario showed the highest HQ and A3 scenario have the lowest HQ. The land uses of 1990, 2018, and A3 scenario had a clustered distribution while A0, A1 and A2 showed a random pattern. The results can support policy-makers by assessing the impact of future LULC changes in Lithuania.

Rewilding processes shape the use of Mediterranean landscapes by an avian top scavenger

The Mediterranean biome has seen a great decline in its rural population. This trend has been followed by an abandonment of agricultural and livestock practices, which has provided an opportunity for rewilding to take place. Rewilding processes can modify the availability of carrion resources for avian obligate scavengers and reduce accessible open areas due to the increase of shrub and forest. We examined how changes in landscape configuration in the past five decades (1956–2011) mediate the foraging behaviour of griffon vultures. Particularly, we examined whether vultures use those areas under natural succession and with a high availability of wild ungulate carcasses. We used GPS information yielded by 30 adult griffon vultures exploiting large regions of southern Spain. We determined (a) habitat use considering land uses and food availability and (b) how tracked individuals responded to areas in different stages of rewilding. Our results showed that vultures preferentially used Mediterranean scrublands, woodlands and the agroforest Mediterranean ecosystem called dehesa, as well as areas with high food resources, namely wild ungulates in winter and a mixture of wild ungulates and livestock in summer. Due to a higher abundance of wild ungulates, vultures forage preferentially in areas with low levels of rewilding, either for being in the first stages of natural succession or for not having experienced further rewilding since the middle of the last century. Rewilding processes are expected to continue in the future affecting the scavenger guild structure and function deeply. Improved management will be essential to preserve ecological processes, ecosystem services and populations of endangered species.