Spontaneous renaturalization of open ecosystems in the hills of Brescia seen through the bird community
Accepted: 17 May 2023
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
The sun-exposed open areas of the Brescia hills overlooking the Po Valley (Avanalpica region) were created by man starting from the 11th century. After the Second World War, following agro-pastoral abandonment, these areas have significantly shrunk. The evolution underway is towards the deciduous forest although in some areas the strong presence of quarries is blocking the vegetational succession or delaying it. Local birds are now largely associated with woodland coenosis and more scarcely with open areas, shrublands and wood edges. Seven open areas species have become extinct over the past 30 years: Woodchat Shrike, Barred Warbler, Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush, Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, Tawny Pipit, Corn Bunting and Ortolan Bunting. Others, like Red-backed Shrike, Common Whitethroat, Cirl Bunting and Wood Lark have declined. Only the generalist Sardinian Warbler and Blue Rock-Thrush, typical of rocky areas with grassy spaces, are still relatively widespread although slightly decreasing. The Cirl Bunting, a species linked to traditional vineyards and orchards, is not expanding in the new intensively cultivated lands. The Eastern Subalpine Warbler is on the rise even though, due to its very low presence and lack of specific surveys, it may not have been detected in the past. The factors determining the presence of these species, i.e. traditional crops, flat open areas, soils with low grass and often with outcropping and/or rocky substrate, are in sharp decline. We can state that this bird community is negatively influenced by the percentage of tree cover and positively influenced by the presence of quarries which, however, represent an ephemeral and strongly impacting environment. In the absence of fires and/or natural disasters as well as human interventions, which are not likely to occur due to their poor economic sustainability, the prognosis for these birds is to be considered poor and a reduction in both bird and general biodiversity is to be expected.
How to Cite
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
- Michelangelo Morganti, Birds facing climate change: a qualitative model for the adaptive potential of migratory behaviour , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 85 No. 1 (2015)
- Flavio Ferlini, Evolution of the breeding range of the “italian” Wagtail Motacilla flava cinereocapilla , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 85 No. 2 (2015)
- Massimo Brunelli, Fulvio Fraticelli, Check-list of the birds of Latium, updated to 2009. , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 80 No. 1 (2010)
- Luca Nelli, Habitat suitability models and carrying capacity estimations for rock ptarmigans in a protected area of the Italian Alps , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 85 No. 1 (2015)
- Violetta Longoni, Diego Rubolini, Guido Pinoli, Mauro Fasola, Population trends of wintering waterbirds in Lombardy between 2002 and 2013 , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 84 No. 2 (2014)
- Gianluca Rassati, Responsiveness to acoustic stimulation, distribution and habitat preferences of the Grey-headed Woodpecker, Picus canus, and the Three-toed Woodpecker, Picoides tridactylus, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia (North-eastern Italy) , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 84 No. 1 (2014)
- Leonardo Conti, Simona Iacobelli, Caterina Sottili, Pier Luigi Taiariol , Analysis of the Rook (Corvus frugilegus) wintering population in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region (Italy) using maximum entropy models , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 92 No. 2 (2022)
- Marco Canova, Carla Bedoni, Valeria Harper, Anna Maria Barazzoni, Adriano de Faveri, Annamaria Grandis, Anatomical differences in three wing muscles of the Grey heron (Ardea cinerea), the Common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and the Common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus): a possible functional interpretation , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 85 No. 1 (2015)
- Marco Masseti, Libyan birds. the remains of the italian ornithological collection in the Assaray Al-Hamra Museums of Tripoli, Libya , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 81 No. 2 (2011)
- Daniele Capello, Giovanni Boano, Importance of the arboreal-shrubby hedges as habitat for birds in an intensive farming area of the Turin-Cuneo plain (NW Italy). , Rivista Italiana di Ornitologia: Vol. 80 No. 1 (2010)
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.