Dataset Information

Effects of bird community dynamics on the seasonal distribution of cultural ecosystem services.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity-based cultural ecosystem services (CES), such as birdwatching, are strongly influenced by biotic community dynamics. However, CES models are largely static, relying on single estimates of species richness or land-use/land-cover proxies, and may be inadequate for landscape management of CES supply. Using bird survey data from the Appalachian Mountains (USA), we developed spatial-temporal models of five CES indicators (total bird species richness, and richness of migratory, infrequent, synanthrope, and resident species), reflecting variation in birdwatcher preferences. We analyzed seasonal shifts in birdwatching supply and how those shifts impacted public access to projected birdwatching hotspots. Landscape patterns of CES supply differed substantially among indicators, leading to opposing conclusions about locations of highest birdwatching supply. Total species richness hotspots seldom overlapped with hotspots of migratory or infrequent species. Public access to CES hotspots varied seasonally. Our study suggests that simple, static biodiversity metrics may overlook spatial dynamics important to CES users.

SUBMITTER: Graves RA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6374221 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effects of bird community dynamics on the seasonal distribution of cultural ecosystem services.

Graves Rose A RA Pearson Scott M SM Turner Monica G MG

Ambio 20180613 3

Biodiversity-based cultural ecosystem services (CES), such as birdwatching, are strongly influenced by biotic community dynamics. However, CES models are largely static, relying on single estimates of species richness or land-use/land-cover proxies, and may be inadequate for landscape management of CES supply. Using bird survey data from the Appalachian Mountains (USA), we developed spatial-temporal models of five CES indicators (total bird species richness, and richness of migratory, infrequent ...[more]

PMID: 29949081

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Project description:Ecosystem services such as food provisioning, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, or recreation in open landscapes underpin human wellbeing. They are highly dependent on land use, land cover and utilization pattern as well as environmental factors like climate, topography and soil. In consequence, ecosystem services supply shows a high spatial variability. However, it is less clear if the perception of the importance of ecosystem services is similarly heterogeneous in space and amongst societal actors. The aim of this large-scale study was to explore whether land cover and climate gradients as well as socio-cultural factors influence the perceptions of ecosystem services of four groups of societal actors: citizens, farmers, foresters and nature managers. Spatially explicit survey data of 3018 respondents allowed to gain insight into the distribution of perceived importance of 21 ecosystem services in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany together with the respondents' socio-cultural characterisation (e.g. gender, education and hobbies in nature). Responses were analysed through descriptive statistics, redundancy analysis, and Generalized Linear Models. Results reveal that the perceived importance of many ecosystem services was consistently high across groups, although perception differed for some ecosystem services (e.g. production of energy plants and timber as well as recreation in urban green space). Compared to other actor groups, farmers attributed slightly lower importance to all ES except provisioning services. Socio-cultural factors better explained variability in perceived importance of ecosystem services than land cover and climate gradients. This might be either explained by the fact that the environmental gradients vary not strong enough in our case study or that they do not shape the perceptions of respondents. A limitation of the study is that the sample of respondents obtained is not representative for the population, but biased towards persons interested in the topics of the survey. Still the consensus indicated by the overall positive perception of ecosystem services among respondents highlights the integrative potential of ecosystem services when included in decision-making.

Dataset Information

Effects of bird community dynamics on the seasonal distribution of cultural ecosystem services.

Publications

Effects of bird community dynamics on the seasonal distribution of cultural ecosystem services.

Similar Datasets

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