Abstract
Understanding and disentangle the effects of landscape composition and configuration, climate, and topography on bird diversity is necessary to identify distribution factors, potential impacts of land-use changes, and future conservation strategies. We studied bird taxonomic and functional diversity within the Biodiversity Monitoring South Tyrol at two spatial scales along gradients of land-use/land-cover (LULC) intensity and elevation. Also, we explored how environmental factors influence bird traits and threatened species. The model including all significant parameters regardless of their classification was the most supported one, denoting the synergetic effect of different types of environmental variables on bird communities. The models containing only LULC classes were always the most supported among the single-group models: as expected, LULC plays a crucial role in shaping local biodiversity and hence bird communities, even across broad landscape and elevation gradients. Our analyses also highlight the importance wetlands and open areas, of mosaics dominated by small patches in agricultural landscapes and settlements, the high values of ecotonal and structural elements in agricultural settings, and of continuous forests. Our study showed that to conserve bird diversity in the Alps, management practices promoting and maintaining small-patched landscapes, structural elements, and a mosaic of different LULC types should be supported, at the same time sustaining continuous forests. Additionally, it is particularly important to preserve or to improve the management of pastures, extensively used meadows and wetlands, and to stop excessive soil sealing. These measures might mitigate the impacts of global changes on bird diversity in European mountain areas.