Olea, P. P. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2025

Identifying the exposure of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of steppe birds to renewable energy developments

Biodiversity is globally threatened by human impacts including land use transformation and climate change. Global warming has prompted a rapid transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) energy. However, utility-scale PV plants demand vast areas and can lead to conflicts with biodiversity conservation, making strategic planning essential. We evaluate the spatial overlap between conservation priorities and PV infrastructure using steppe birds--a highly threatened bird group occurring in lands potentially suitable for PV plants--as a model. First, we quantified and mapped taxonomic (TD), functional (FD), and phylogenetic diversity (PD) of 26 species across a main stronghold for European steppe birds (mainland Spain and Balearic Islands) to identify prioritization scenarios that best preserved all steppe bird diversity facets (TD, FD, and PD), and steppe birds of conservation concern. Next, we generated a diversity hotspot map based on the combination of TD, FD, and PD and overlapped with existing PV infrastructure to determine: (1) exposure areas (high diversity hotspots with high PV occupancy), and (2) no-go areas (high diversity hotspots with low/null PV occupancy). We found that the prioritization scenario combining TD+FD+PD retained 68.5% of TD, 75.5% of FD, 59.7% of PD, and 62.8% of areas with species of conservation concern, providing a more balanced representation across biodiversity facets than other prioritization scenarios. PV infrastructure currently occurs in 53.1% of high diversity hotspot cells. Overall, exposure areas (7.2% of the study area) were mainly concentrated in Central, Southern, and Northwestern Spain, while no-go areas (19.9% of the study area) were concentrated in Northern, Central, and Central-Western Spain. Our methodology is adaptable to other species, communities and regions, offering a robust framework for balancing development projects with biodiversity conservation. As the transition to renewable energy accelerates, including biodiversity in energy planning is crucial for preventing irreversible ecological losses.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Large home range scavengers support higher rates of carcass removal

O_LIVertebrate scavenger communities vary in species composition across the globe, and include a wide array of species with diverse ecological strategies and life-histories that support essential ecosystem functions, such as carrion removal. While previous studies have mostly focussed on how community aspects such as species richness and composition affect carrion consumption rates, it remains unclear whether this important function of scavengers is better explained by the dominance of key functional traits or niche complementarity as a result of a diverse functional representation. C_LIO_LIHere, we test three competitive hypotheses to assess if carrion consumption in vertebrate scavenger communities depends on: i) the presence of key dominant traits (functional identity hypothesis), ii) functional diversity that promotes niche complementarity (functional diversity hypothesis), or iii) the accumulation of individuals and species, irrespective of their trait representation (functional equivalence). To explore these hypotheses, we used five study areas in Spain and South Africa, which represent a gradient of scavenger biodiversity, i.e., ranging from communities dominated by facultative scavengers, such as generalists and meso-predators, to those including vultures and large carnivores. C_LIO_LIWithin study areas, traits that characterise obligate scavengers or large carnivores (e.g. mean home range, proportion of social foragers) were positively linked to rapid carrion consumption, while the biomass of functional groups including facultative scavengers were either weakly or negatively associated with carrion consumption. C_LIO_LIWhen combining all study areas, higher rates of carrion consumption were related to scavenger communities dominated by species with large home ranges (e.g. Gyps vultures), which was found to be a key trait. In contrast, metrics describing functional diversity (functional dispersion) and functional equivalence (species richness and abundance) had lower predictive power in explaining carrion consumption patterns. C_LIO_LIOur data support the functional identity hypothesis as a better framework for explaining carrion consumption rates than functional diversity or equivalence. Our findings contribute to understanding the mechanisms sustaining ecosystem functioning in vertebrate communities and reinforce the role of obligate scavengers and large carnivores as keystone species in terrestrial ecosystems. C_LI

ecology↗