WHAT’S THE BUZZ ABOUT ALL THAT FUZZ (INESS)? A BIRD COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE OF THE FUZZY PATTERN OF MEDITERRANEAN WOODLANDS
STUDENT SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION
As a result of centuries of traditional human activities, Mediterranean landscapes often show a fuzzy pattern of tree cover. Landscapes that do not exhibit a patchy structure offer unique challenges to researchers and managers when describing its complexity and how organisms distribute along them. The debate regarding the conceptualization of landscapes has been punctuated by two competing theories: the fragmentation and the continuum models. Two main distinct assumptions set both models apart: the interdependence of species responses to landscape (community vs. individualistic concepts) and the way landscape is described (patch- vs. gradient-based). While patch-based models have been vastly used in landscape mosaics, its applicability to fuzzy landscapes has been questioned as a possible source of bias by assuming unrealistic discontinuities. In this talk, I aim to provide a new insight on how species perceive and distribute along the fuzzy pattern of Mediterranean landscapes by addressing two questions: Do species respond independently to change or as coherent and functional assemblages? Which model conceptualization best describes bird species distribution? I will discuss about the synergisms between species marking a dualistic nature of communities, and how the acknowledgement of a pluralistic perspective on the integration of different conceptualizations may improve information on species distribution.
Pedro Salgueiro is graduated in Biology and holds a MSc in Conservation Biology by the University of Évora. He is currently working on his PhD project since 2013 at the University of Évora/CIBIO-UE, within the APPLECOL Group. He is focused on landscape connectivity analysis applied to bird community persistence in fragmented areas, being particularly interested in determining critical thresholds of habitat loss and fragmentation and its implications on bird community assemblage and network resilience.
Image credits: Pedro Salgueiro