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A method for establishing bird conservation value at a landscape level

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

Lorenzo Fornasari ,
Elisabetta de Carli ,
Luciana Bottoni  and
Renato Massa
Lorenzo Fornasari
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze dell' Ambiente e del Territorio, Via L. Emanueli 15, 20126 Milano, Italy
Elisabetta de Carli
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze dell' Ambiente e del Territorio, Via L. Emanueli 15, 20126 Milano, Italy
Luciana Bottoni
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze dell' Ambiente e del Territorio, Via L. Emanueli 15, 20126 Milano, Italy
Renato Massa
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze dell' Ambiente e del Territorio, Via L. Emanueli 15, 20126 Milano, Italy
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To produce conservation indices from bird community data, with the aim of identifying and comparing areas of regional conservation concern, we selected bird community samples randomly over a large study area, without including habitat features a priori in the sampling procedure. Subsequently, we subjected the samples to a cluster analysis to identify a posteriori bird communities to be indexed together with their associated habitat and distribution/abundance on a regional scale. We identified 15 bird community types and were able to characterize each of them by a community conservation index (CCI) taking into account three different components of rarity: habitat selectivity, geographical distribution, and abundance. A cluster of four communities was associated with lowland farmland and woodland; another cluster of five was found at higher average altitudes and degree of urbanization; a third one of six showed a montane distribution. This third cluster showed much higher CCI values in comparison with the first two suggesting that the index here proposed is very sensitive to a high community selectivity and a restricted distribution/abundance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 1997 , pp. 81 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Birdlife International 1997

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