The application of remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies provides powerful tools when used to investigate wildlife and its habitat for an analysis or modelling approach. In this context, birds have been of great and progressive value as biological and environmental indicators. In order to learn about the common approaches used-its methods, processing steps, trends, advantages and challenges-over 120 representative publications of the last 30 years that made use of satellite images for avian applications have been reviewed.The reviewed studies have shown that GIS-based analyses of satellite and bird data have been well established for efficient ecosystem descriptions and species modelling within a large range of scales and habitats. In order to improve the quality of inference and for comparative analyses, it is recommended that further studies are documented in detail. Also, in order to verify and improve the obtained results, additional ground data on the main structure of the vegetation relevant to the bird species in question are usually necessary. Satellite-based remote sensing applications in ornithology could be used increasingly for assisting in habitat evaluation, habitat modelling and monitoring programmes and in achieving overall wildlife conservation and management objectives effectively. This is especially true for remote regions of the world that are difficult to access where few habitat studies have been undertaken to date but whose study is urgently needed.

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Windstorms, bark beetle outbreaks and fires are important natural disturbances in coniferous forests worldwide. Wind-thrown trees promote biodiversity and restoration within production forests, but also cause large economic losses due to bark beetle infestation and accelerated fungal decomposition. Such damaged trees are often removed by salvage logging, which leads to decreased biodiversity and thus increasingly evokes discussions between economists and ecologists about appropriate strategies. To reveal the reasons behind species loss after salvage logging, we used a functional approach based on four habitat-related ecological traits and focused on saproxylic beetles. We predicted that salvage logging would decrease functional diversity (measured as effect sizes of mean pairwise distances using null models) as well as mean values of beetle body size, wood diameter niche and canopy cover niche, but would increase decay stage niche. As expected, salvage logging caused a decrease in species richness, but led to an increase in functional diversity by altering the species composition from habitat-filtered assemblages toward random assemblages. Even though salvage logging removes tree trunks, the most negative effects were found for small and heliophilous species and for species specialized on wood of small diameter. Our results suggested that salvage logging disrupts the natural assembly process on windthrown trees and that negative ecological impacts are caused more by microclimate alteration of the dead-wood objects than by loss of resource amount. These insights underline the power of functional approaches to detect ecosystem responses to anthropogenic disturbance and form a basis for management decisions in conservation. To mitigate negative effects on saproxylic beetle diversity after windthrows, we recommend preserving single windthrown trees or at least their tops with exposed branches during salvage logging. Such an extension of the green-tree retention approach to windthrown trees will preserve natural succession and associated communities of disturbed spruce forests.

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Understanding the rules of habitat selection and the individual behavioural routines in the home-range is crucial for developing evidence-based conservation action. We investigated habitat selection and range use of adult little owls Athene noctua in relation to landscape configuration, habitat structure and resource distribution. We determined the preference of habitat structures by VHF-telemetry. Large-and fine-scale distribution patterns of volesthe main prey during the breeding season were assessed by transect counts of signs of vole presence. An experiment using artificial perches was carried out to determine the fine-scale adjustment of the owls' range use in relation to prey abundance and vegetation height. Habitat selection and resource exploitation by little owls were structured at all spatial levels: (1) at the landscape scale, orchards were highly preferred over other areas. This accords with the patchy large-scale occurrence of voles, which were absent in cropland, but abundant in orchards and grassland; (2) within home-ranges, the spatial distribution of voles was highly inhomogeneous and structures with high prey abundance were used over-proportionally; (3) at the scale of foraging sites, little owls preferred patches with low vegetation over those with high prey abundance, establishing that prey availability is the crux. The results suggest that all levels of habitat selection and range use were related to farming practices and affected by current cultivation. Conservation measures should focus on the conservation and restoration of orchards on the landscape level and habitat management measures should focus on grasslandsthe main food providersby creating a mosaic of patches with short grass and tall grass. Together with other habitat structures providing food resources such as field edges, wildflower areas and structures facilitating access to prey, the quality of habitat patches in terms of food availability may be highly improved.

Producing energy crops as an alternative to fossil fuels in order to reduce CO 2 emissions will lead to large-scale changes in agricultural landscapes. Here, we quantify the potential impact of an increase in maize fields on the diversity of farmland birds by means of high resolution (25 9 25 m) land-use scenarios. We generated scenarios in which the area of maize production in Germany increases from presently 2.6 to 2.9, 3.6 and 4.3 million ha, corresponding to the energy crop production targets of the German Renewable Energy Act for the years 2020, 2035 and 2050. To test the mitigating potential of conservation measures, each scenario was generated in a standard version and a landscape protection version, with the latter excluding valuable farmland areas from being converted into maize fields. Nine species of farmland birds belonging to the governmental indicator scheme for sustainable land-use in Germany were modelled for the six nation-wide scenarios. The models predicted that only the Northern Lapwing and the Little Owl might profit from extended maize production. Despite this, the total number of breeding pairs of the indicator species was predicted to decline by about 0.4 million breeding pairs in the most intensive scenario. Protection of valuable farmland did not mitigate these negative effects in the models. Our findings suggest that increased production of energy crops conflicts with conservation of biological diversity.

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

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