Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs

Thompson, Lucie; Galiana, Nuria; Wells, Konstans; Rivera, Miguel Lurgi

doi:10.1098/rspb.2025.0614

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Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs

Lucie Thompson, Nuria Galiana

, Konstans Wells

, Miguel Lurgi Rivera

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Volume: 292, Issue: 2048, Start page: 20250614

Swansea University Authors: Lucie Thompson, Konstans Wells , Miguel Lurgi Rivera

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DOI (Published version): 10.1098/rspb.2025.0614

Abstract

Protecting habitat and the species they shelter by setting up protected areas (PAs) has become a conservation priority to mitigate the current extinction crisis. This strategy has improved different aspects of biodiversity including species richness and abundance across ecosystems. However, to truly...

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Published in:	Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
ISSN:	1471-2954
Published:	The Royal Society 2025
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69297

first_indexed	2025-04-16T08:19:21Z
last_indexed	2025-06-25T05:00:26Z
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spelling	2025-06-24T12:43:44.5068988 v2 69297 2025-04-16 Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs 80a8b609f17ed53721ef85eb48b0daec Lucie Thompson Lucie Thompson true false d18166c31e89833c55ef0f2cbb551243 0000-0003-0377-2463 Konstans Wells Konstans Wells true false 947df89d116a1ab75515e421089e0443 0000-0001-9891-895X Miguel Lurgi Rivera Miguel Lurgi Rivera true false 2025-04-16 BGPS Protecting habitat and the species they shelter by setting up protected areas (PAs) has become a conservation priority to mitigate the current extinction crisis. This strategy has improved different aspects of biodiversity including species richness and abundance across ecosystems. However, to truly understand the effectiveness of mitigation measures against global environmental change, we must account for one of the fundamental dimensions of biodiversity: species interactions. Using 376 556 curated citizen science records of 509 bird species distributed across 45 networks of European PAs (collections of connected PAs), we show that the effects of PAs on the structure of avian food webs are mixed across Europe. Overall effects of protection include an increase in species richness and larger body masses of both top and intermediate species. For other food web features, the sign and magnitude of the effects are mixed. Our results further suggest that these effects are strongly influenced by geographical and environmental features of the PA networks such as remoteness, habitat diversity, human pressure and agriculture. Lastly, PAs with specific protection goals such as those administered by European Bird Directives for conservation sustain more complex food webs. Our study provides evidence for the need of including clear management goals and considering environmental context in the designation of PAs to increase their effectiveness at preserving biodiversity beyond species richness. Journal Article Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292 2048 20250614 The Royal Society 1471-2954 ecological networks, trophic interactions, habitat degradation, biodiversity conservation, protected areas, food webs, biogeography 4 6 2025 2025-06-04 10.1098/rspb.2025.0614 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) L.T. was funded by Swansea University ECR BIOL postgraduate research scholarship. N.G. received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement BIOFOODWEB (no. 101025471). 2025-06-24T12:43:44.5068988 2025-04-16T09:13:01.7744670 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Lucie Thompson 1 Nuria Galiana 0000-0001-7720-0615 2 Konstans Wells 0000-0003-0377-2463 3 Miguel Lurgi Rivera 0000-0001-9891-895X 4 69297__34557__be863e5241924f189b4ea5ab1d57566a.pdf 69297.VOR.pdf 2025-06-24T12:39:54.2952613 Output 2167715 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs
spellingShingle	Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs Lucie Thompson Konstans Wells Miguel Lurgi Rivera
title_short	Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs
title_full	Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs
title_fullStr	Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs
title_full_unstemmed	Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs
title_sort	Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs
author_id_str_mv	80a8b609f17ed53721ef85eb48b0daec d18166c31e89833c55ef0f2cbb551243 947df89d116a1ab75515e421089e0443
author_id_fullname_str_mv	80a8b609f17ed53721ef85eb48b0daec_*_Lucie Thompson d18166c31e89833c55ef0f2cbb551243__Konstans Wells 947df89d116a1ab75515e421089e0443_**_Miguel Lurgi Rivera
author	Lucie Thompson Konstans Wells Miguel Lurgi Rivera
author2	Lucie Thompson Nuria Galiana Konstans Wells Miguel Lurgi Rivera
format	Journal article
container_title	Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
container_volume	292
container_issue	2048
container_start_page	20250614
publishDate	2025
institution	Swansea University
issn	1471-2954
doi_str_mv	10.1098/rspb.2025.0614
publisher	The Royal Society
college_str	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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description	Protecting habitat and the species they shelter by setting up protected areas (PAs) has become a conservation priority to mitigate the current extinction crisis. This strategy has improved different aspects of biodiversity including species richness and abundance across ecosystems. However, to truly understand the effectiveness of mitigation measures against global environmental change, we must account for one of the fundamental dimensions of biodiversity: species interactions. Using 376 556 curated citizen science records of 509 bird species distributed across 45 networks of European PAs (collections of connected PAs), we show that the effects of PAs on the structure of avian food webs are mixed across Europe. Overall effects of protection include an increase in species richness and larger body masses of both top and intermediate species. For other food web features, the sign and magnitude of the effects are mixed. Our results further suggest that these effects are strongly influenced by geographical and environmental features of the PA networks such as remoteness, habitat diversity, human pressure and agriculture. Lastly, PAs with specific protection goals such as those administered by European Bird Directives for conservation sustain more complex food webs. Our study provides evidence for the need of including clear management goals and considering environmental context in the designation of PAs to increase their effectiveness at preserving biodiversity beyond species richness.
published_date	2025-06-04T05:27:48Z
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Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs

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