Congruence between breeding and wintering biodiversity hotspots: A case study in farmlands of Western Poland

Abstract

Farmland landscapes are recognized as important ecosystems, not only for their rich biodiversity but equally so for the human beings who live and work in these places. However, biodiversity varies among sites (spatial change) and among seasons (temporal change). In this work, we tested the hypothesis that bird diversity hotspots distribution for breeding is congruent with bird diversity hotspots for wintering season, focusing also the representation of protected areas for the conservation of local hotspots. We proposed a framework based on the use of species richness, functional diversity, and evolutionary distinctiveness to characterize avian communities.

Keywords

• Avian communities
• Evolutionary distinctiveness
• Farmland
• Protected areas
• Seasonality
• Spatial congruence