https://doi.org/10.4081/rio.2023.570
Mapping breeding birds in a re-naturalized historical fortress: composition, structure and considerations about abundance vs. biomass comparisons
Submitted: 8 August 2021
Accepted: 5 June 2023
Published: 14 December 2023
Accepted: 5 June 2023
Abstract Views: 634
PDF: 289
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
Using the mapping method, I obtained data about a rich, even and diversified breeding bird assemblage inhabiting an abandoned and re-naturalized historical military fortress (Rome, central Italy). Fortress and the surrounding parks host a large number of edge-mosaic, forest and synanthropic species (often localized at urban scale as Dendrocopos minor and Columba palumbus) due to a large availability of many sub-habitats and related niches (walls, cavities, tree holes, mature trees, mowed meadows, hedgerows, and deep moats). In this regard, this historical site may be considered a “key-stone structure” at the landscape scale (i.e., a mature forest/rocky patch embedded in an agromosaic suburban mosaic). The application of the Abundance/Biomass Comparison (ABC) evidenced a dominant role of large body mass species. The underlying logic behind this approach assumes that, generally, in less disturbed environments species with higher trophic level (and higher body mass) dominate: the increase in frequency of these larger species induce early cumulating biomass curves. However, in our anthropized case study, this assumption seems not valid since many large body mass species (as Columba livia dom., Psittacula krameri and Corvus cornix) show a low trophic level (e.g. granivorous or homnivorous): i.e. body mass is not an indicator of trophic level. Therefore, the pattern reported by ABC curves evidence only a dominance of large body mass species without implications on the trophic level and, consequently, on the disturbance acting on the assemblage. In this regard, assumptions linked to the ABC curves are probably not universal but only limited to specific taxa and contexts.
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Citations
PlumX Metrics
PlumX Metrics provide insights into the ways people interact with individual pieces of research output (articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and many more) in the online environment. Collectively known as PlumX Metrics, these metrics are divided into five categories to help make sense of the huge amounts of data involved and to enable analysis by comparing like with like.
Ammann A., Biondi G., Boano A., Bruni M., Cento M., Coppola M., D’Amico D., Fiorillo A., Giampaoletti P., Gildi R., Gullo E., Hueting S., Lamberti M., Mazzoni D., Mentil L., Nottari L., Paloni M., Papini P., Petrassi F., Ramellini S., Reppucci R., Risa S., Rivola A., Sarrocco S., Scrocca R., Tecchiato G. & Fraticelli F., 2017 – Il Colombaccio Columba palumbus a Roma. Alula, 24 (1-2): 3-11.
Arcamone E. & Paesani G., 2003 – La Torre di Calafuria: una ‘casa invernale’ per il Rondone pallido Apus pallidus. In: Atti del XII Convegno Italiano di Ornitologia. Biodiversità: adattamenti e conservazione. Ercolano (Napoli), 23-27 settembre 2003. Conti P., Rubolini D., Galeotti P., Milone M. & De Filippo G. (eds.). Avocetta, n.s. 27: 16.
Battisti C., 2018 – Synanthropic-dominated biomass in an insular land bird assemblage. Community Ecology, 19: 203-210.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/168.2018.19.3.1
Battisti C. & Dodaro G., 2016 – Mapping bird assemblages in a Mediterranean urban park: Evidence for a shift in dominance towards medium-large body sized species after 26 years. Belgian Journal of Zoology, 146 (2): 81-89.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26496/bjz.2016.43
Battisti C. & Mandolini R., 2018 – La comunità ornitica nidificante in un settore residuale della Campagna romana (corridoio tra le Riserve naturali ‘Valle dei Casali’ e ‘Tenuta dei Massimi’; Roma, Italia centrale). Alula, 25 (1-2): 1-9.
Battisti C., Poeta G. & Fanelli G., 2016 – An introduction to disturbance ecology: A road map for wildlife and conservation. Springer, Switzerland.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32476-0
Battisti C., Dodaro G. & Fanelli G., 2017 – Paradoxical environmental conservation: Failure of an unplanned urban development as a driver of passive ecological restoration. Environmental Development, 24: 179-186.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2017.05.003
Belcher R. N., Sadanandan K. R., Goh E. R., Chan J. Y., Menz S. & Schroepfer T., 2019 – Vegetation on and around large-scale buildings positively influences native tropical bird abundance and bird species richness. Urban Ecosystems, 22 (2): 213-225.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-018-0808-0
Bernoni M. & De Santis E., 2011 – Picchio rosso minore Dendrocopos minor. In: Nuovo atlante degli uccelli nidificanti nel Lazio. Brunelli M., Sarrocco S., Corbi F., Sorace A., Boano A., De Felici S., Guerrieri G., Meschini A. & Roma S. (eds.). Edizioni ARP (Agenzia Regionale Parchi), Roma: 212-213.
Bhakti T., Rossi F., de Oliveira Mafia P., de Almeida E. F., Fujaco M. A. G. & de Azevedo C. S., 2021 – Preservation of historical heritage increases bird biodiversity in urban centers. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 23 (6): 8758-8773.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-020-00993-7
Bibby C. J., Burgess N. D., Hill D. A. & Mustoe S. H., 2000 – Bird census techniques. 2nd Edition. Academic Press, London.
Biondi M. & Cannavicci A., 2001 – La comunità ornitica dell’area archeologica di Ostia Antica (Roma). Gli Uccelli d’Italia, 26: 82-86. Blanco G., Fargallo J. A., Tella J. & Cuevas J. A., 1997 – Role of buildings as nest-sites in the range expansion and conservation of choughs Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax in Spain. Biological Conservation, 79 (2-3): 117-122.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(96)00118-8
Blasi C. & Michetti L., 2002 – La Carta del Fitoclima d’Italia (scala 1:250.000). In: Abstract International Symposium of “Biodiversity and Phytosociology, Ancona 18-19 dicembre 2002. Università degli Studi di Ancona: 106.
Bock C. E. & Lynch J. F., 1970 – Breeding bird populations of burned and unburned conifer forest in the Sierra Nevada. The Condor, 72 (2): 182-189.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1366629
Cajano E., 2006 – Il sistema dei forti militari a Roma. Gangemi Editore, Roma.
Casalini R. & Zapparoli M., 1997 – Pettirosso Erithacus rubecula. In: eds.). Atlante degli Uccelli nidificanti a Roma. Cignini B. & Zapparoli M. (eds.). Fratelli Palombi Editori, Roma: 73.
Celesti-Grapow L. & Ricotta C., 2021 – Plant invasion as an emerging challenge for the conservation of heritage sites: the spread of ornamental trees on ancient monuments in Rome, Italy. Biological Invasions, 23 (4): 1191-1206.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02429-9
Clarke K. R., 1990 – Comparisons of dominance curves. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 138: 143-157.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0981(90)90181-B
Clarke K. R. & Warwick R. M., 2001 – Change in marine communities: an approach to statistical analysis and interpretation. Plymouth Marine Laboratory.
Cramp S. (ed.), 1988 – The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Vol. V. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Cramp S. & Perrins C. M. (eds.), 1993 – The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Vol. VII. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Cramp S & Simmons K. E. L. (eds.), 1977 – The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Vol. I. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Cramp S. & Simmons K. E. L. (eds.), 1980 – The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Vol. II. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Cramp S. & Simmons K. E. L. (eds.), 1983 – The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Vol. III. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dytham C., 2011 – Choosing and Using Statistics. A Biologist’s Guide. Wiley-Blackwell.
Fanelli G. & Bianco M., 2007 – Memorie illustrative della Carta della vegetazione reale della Provincia di Roma. Provincia di Roma, Assessorato alle Politiche del territorio.
Grosso G. & Battisti C., 2018 – Presenza di Columba livia forma domestica lungo mura di interesse storico: disponibilità, uso e selezione di siti e implicazioni gestionali. Alula, 25 (1-2): 61-66.
Hammer Ø., Harper D. A. & Ryan P. D., 2001 – PAST: Paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontologia electronica, 4 (1): 9.
Jim C. Y. & Chen W. Y., 2011 – Bioreceptivity of buildings for spontaneous arboreal flora in compact city environment. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 10 (1): 19-28.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2010.11.001
Magurran A. E., 2004 – Measuring Biological Diversity. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
Magurran A. E. & Phillip D. A., 2001 – Implications of species loss in freshwater fish assemblages. Ecography, 24: 645-650.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0587.2001.240603.x
Marra F. & Rosa C., 1995 – Stratigrafia e assetto geologico dell’area romana. In: La geologia di Roma. Il centro storico. Memorie descrittive della Carta Geologica d’Italia, Vol. 1. Funiciello R. (ed.). Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Roma, 50: 49-1128.
Monaghan P. & Coulson J. C., 1977 – Status of large gulls nesting on buildings. Bird study, 24 (2): 89-104.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00063657709476538
Penczak T. & Kruk A., 1999 – Applicability of the abundance/biomass comparison method for detecting human impacts on fish populations in the Pilica River, Poland. Fishery Research, 39: 229-240.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-7836(98)00201-X
Pielou E. C., 1966 – The measurement of diversity in different types of biological collections. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 13: 131-144.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(66)90013-0
Pompeo A., 1999 – Le esecuzioni capitali a Roma e la frontiera orientale (1939-1943). Qualestoria. Rivista di storia contemporanea, 2:
Pompeo A. (ed.), 2000 – Forte Bravetta 1932-1945. Storie memorie territorio. (RTF), SPQR XVI Circoscrizione, ANPI, Provincia di Roma.
Pompeo A., 2012 – Forte Bravetta. Una fabbrica di morte dal fascismo al primo dopoguerra. Odradek, Roma.
Prete S., Battisti C., Marini F. & Ciucci P., 2012 – Applying abundance/biomass comparisons on a small mammal assemblage from Barn owl (Tyto alba) pellets (Mount Soratte, central Italy): a cautionary note. Rendiconti Lincei, 23: 349-354.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-012-0183-3
Salt G. W., 1957 – An analysis of avifaunas in the Teton Mountains and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Condor, 59 (6): 373-393.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1365248
Sarrocco S., Battisti C., Brunelli M., Calvario E., Ianniello L., Sorace A., Teofili C., Trotta M., Visentin M. & Bologna M. A., 2002 – L’avifauna delle aree naturali protette del Comune di Roma gestite dall’Ente RomaNatura. Alula, 9 (1-2): 3-31.
Shannon C. E. & Weaver W., 1949 – The Mathematical theory of communication. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Skórka P., Żmihorski M., Grzędzicka E., Martyka R. & Sutherland W. J., 2018 – The role of churches in maintaining bird diversity: A case study from southern Poland. Biological Conservation, 226: 280-287.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.08.013
Smith W. H. & Rissler L. J., 2010 – Quantifying disturbance in terrestrial communities: abundance-biomass comparisons of herpetofauna closely track forest succession. Restoration Ecology, 18: 195-204.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-100X.2009.00600.x
Solyanko K., Spiridonov V. & Naumov A., 2011 – Biomass, commonly occurring and dominant species of macrobenthos in Onega Bay (White Sea, Russia): data from three different decades. Marine Ecology. - Progress Series, 32: 36-48.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0485.2011.00438.x
Sorace A., 1999 – I parchi urbani agricoli: possibile rifugio per specie ornitiche in diminuzione? Il caso della ‘Valle dei Casali’. In: Atti X Convegno italiano di Ornitologia. Scarton F., Fracasso G. & Bogliani G. (eds.). Avocetta, n.s. 23: 165.
Sorace A., 2001 – Value to wildlife of urban-agricultural parks: a case study from Rome urban area. Environmental Management, 28 (4): 547-560.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002670010243
Spellerberg I. F. & Fedor P. J., 2003 – A tribute to Claude Shannon (1916-2001) and a plea for more rigorous use of species richness, species diversity and the ‘Shannon-Wiener’ Index. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 12 (3): 177-179.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1466-822X.2003.00015.x
Sumasgutner P., Nemeth E., Tebb G., Krenn H. W. & Gamauf A., 2014 – Hard times in the city-attractive nest sites but insufficient food supply lead to low reproduction rates in a bird of prey. Frontiers in Zoology, 11 (1): 1-14.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-9994-11-48
Taffon D. & Battisti C., 2005 – Breeding bird communities and ecotope niche breadth of the species in a heterogeneous landscape of Central Italy. Rivista italiana di Ornitologia, 75: 129-139.
Tews J., Brose U., Grimm V., Tielbörger K., Wichmann M. C., Schwager M. & Jeltsch F., 2004 – Animal species diversity driven by habitat heterogeneity/diversity: the importance of keystone structures. Journal of Biogeography, 31 (1): 79-92.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0305-0270.2003.00994.x
Warwick R. M., 1986 – A new method for detecting pollution effects on marine macro-benthic communities. Marine Biology, 92: 557-562. Warwick R. M. & Clarke K. R., 1994 – Relearning the ABC: taxonomic changes and abundance/biomass relationships in disturbed benthic communities. Marine Biology, 118: 739-744.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00347523
Wiens J. A., 1992 – The ecology of bird communities. Volume 1. Foundations and Patterns. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
How to Cite
Battisti, C. (2023). Mapping breeding birds in a re-naturalized historical fortress: composition, structure and considerations about abundance vs. biomass comparisons. Rivista Italiana Di Ornitologia, 93(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/rio.2023.570
Copyright (c) 2023 Corrado Battisti
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.
Similar Articles
- Alberto Chiti Batelli, Paolo Sposimo, Investigation on breeding birds in Lunigiana montane grasslands , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 82 No. 1-2 (2012)
- Guido Cattaneo, [The Bee-eater (Merops apiaster) nesting in mountain areas] , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 88 No. 2 (2018)
- Grzegorz Kopij, The role of peri-urban wetland and meadow habitats in the protection of trans-Saharan migrant passerine species in a central European city , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 88 No. 1 (2018)
- Maurizio Chiereghin, Alessandro Prezzi, Fabiano Sartirana, ERRATUM. Update on successful nesting of bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) in the Lanzo Valleys, Piedmont region (NW Italy) , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 94 No. 1 (2024)
- Flavio Ferlini, The Birds of Italy 1. Anatidae – Alcidae , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 88 No. 2 (2018)
- Maurizio Chiereghin, Fabiano Sartirana, [First successful nesting of the Bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) in Piedmont since the beginning of the reintroduction project in the Alps] , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 89 No. 2 (2019)
- Gabriele Facchin, Fabrizio Florit, Marco Zenatello, The wetland geodatabase for International Waterbird Census - IWC in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, NE Italy , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 82 No. 1-2 (2012)
- Natale Emilio Baldaccini, The synanthropic status of wild rock doves (Columba livia) and their contribution to feral pigeon populations , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 90 No. 1 (2020)
- Gabriele Angeletti, Elena Bresca, Cristian Cavalieri, Pierfrancesco Gambelli, Pietro Politi, Claudio Sebastianelli, Wintering passerines in the Oasi Stagni Urbani Fano (Province of Pesaro and Urbino, Italy) , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 82 No. 1-2 (2012)
- Alessandro Franzoi, Simone Tenan, Paula Lorenzo Sanchez, Paolo Pedrini, Temporal trends in abundance and phenology of migratory birds across the Italian Alps during a 20-year period , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 91 No. 2 (2021)
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.