At the same time that the human being began to transform the landscape and was dedicated to agriculture and livestock, the populations of animals and plants adapted to these transformations , and communities formed by very typical species emerged in the fields in which man worked.
In recent decades, however, man has turned to the cities, and the ancient fields of Europe have been depopulated. What consequences does this rural abandonment have for biodiversity? A work published in the scientific journal Environmental Conservation reveals that the transformation of these open spaces into closed forests or urbanized areas has harmed several species of birds and butterflies typical of these habitats .
The researchers carried out a very exhaustive monitoring throughout the Catalan territory and were based for their analysis on data collected over 12 years in 300 itineraries, in the case of birds, and in 70 study plots traveled for more than 20 years for butterflies. .
The results revealed that species such as the Executioner ( Lanius meridionalis ), a bird increasingly threatened with extinction, or the Erynnis tages butterfly have been affected by rural abandonment. On the other hand, changes in the territory have favored species that live in forests or more closed habitats, such as the robin Erithacus rubecula or the moray eel Pararge aegeria . “These results alert us that the more forest species of birds and butterflies could be displacing the species from the open spaces”, comments Lluís Brotons, researcher at CREAF and the Forest Technology Center of Catalonia.
This research also shows us the importance of conducting wildlife censuses for many years in a row: the long-term fluctuations of the populations studied give us many clues about the consequences of human action and global change on the biodiversity that surrounds us.
