No abstract

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Grasslands provide diverse opportunities for bird species along an urban-rural gradient.

Context -Species distribution modelling is a common tool in conservation biology but two main criticisms remain: (1) the use of simplistic variables that do not account for species movements and/or connectivity and (2) poor consideration of multi-scale processes driving species distributions.Objectives -We aimed to determine if including multi-scale and ne-scale movement processes in SDM predictors would improve accuracy of SDM for low-mobility amphibian species over species-level analysis.Methods -We tested and compared different SDMs for nine amphibian species with four different sets of predictors: (1) simple distance-based predictors; (2) single-scale compositional predictors; (3) multiscale compositional predictors with a priori selection of scale based on knowledge of species mobility and scale-of-effect (4) multi-scale compositional predictors calculated using a friction-based functional grain to account for resource accessibility with landscape resistance to movement.Results -Using friction-based functional grain predictors produced slight to moderate improvements of SDM performance at large scale. The multi-scale approach, with a priori scale selection led to ambiguous results depending on the species studied, in particular for generalist species.Conclusion -We underline the potential of using a friction-based functional grain to improve SDM predictions for species-level analysis.

One response to biodiversity decline is the definition of ecological networks that extend beyond protected areas and promote connectivity in human-dominated landscapes. In farmland, landscape ecological research has focused more on wooded than open habitat networks. In our study, we assessed the influence of permanent grassland connectivity, described by grassland amount and spatial configuration, on grassland biodiversity. We selected permanent grasslands in livestock farming areas of northwestern France, which were sampled for plants, carabids and birds. At two spatial scales we tested the effects of amount and configuration of grasslands, wooded habitats and crops on richness and abundance of total assemblages and species ecological groups. Grassland connectivity had no significant effects on total richness or abundance of any taxonomic group, regardless of habitat affinity or dispersal ability. The amount of wooded habitat and length of wooded edges at the 200 m scale positively influenced forest and generalist animal groups as well as grassland plant species, in particular animal-dispersed species. However, for animal groups such as open habitat carabids or farmland bird specialists, the same wooded habitats negatively influenced richness and abundance at the 500 m scale. The scale and direction of biodiversity responses to landscape context were therefore similar among taxonomic groups, but opposite for habitat affinity groups. We conclude that while grassland connectivity is unlikely to contribute positively to biodiversity, increasing or maintaining wooded elements near grasslands would be a worthwhile conservation goal. However, the requirements of open farmland animal species groups must be considered, for which such action may be deleterious.