Seminar: From Sacred Forests to Cities: Understanding Avian Responses to Anthropogenic Habitat Changes
Data:
Luogo:
WSL Birmensdorf, Hörsaal and online
Organizzato da:
Biodiversity Center, WSL
Relatore/relatrice:
Yanina Benedetti and Federico Morelli
Moderatore/moderatrice:
Marco Basile, WSL
Lingua:
English
Tipo di evento:
Presentazioni e colloqui
Pubblico principale:
Anyone interested in the topics
This is a joint seminar co-organized by the Research Unit Forest Health and Biotic Interactions (WABIO) and the WSL Biodiversity Center.
The seminar features two speakers, Yanina Benedetti and Federico Morelli, presenting the talks:
- Old Trees in Small Places: How Remnant Forest Patches Sustain Avian Diversity and Specialization
- Using birds’ escape behavior as a proxy of fear to explore their responses to the urbanization process
Old Trees in Small Places: How Remnant Forest Patches Sustain Avian Diversity and Specialization ¶
Speaker: Yanina Benedetti
Across Europe, old‑growth forests are increasingly rare and highly fragmented, raising urgent questions about how biodiversity can persist within intensively managed landscapes. While conservation efforts often prioritize large, continuous forest tracts, the ecological relevance of small, unmanaged forest remnants remains under‑recognised.
In this presentation, I explore whether and how small patches of long‑protected forest can function as biodiversity refugia, using sacred oak groves in north‑western Greece as a model system. By comparing sacred groves with nearby managed oak woodlands, we examined differences in habitat structure and multiple dimensions of avian biodiversity, including taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity, as well as community specialization.
The talk focuses on the role of old‑growth attributes, such as large trees and structural complexity, in shaping bird communities within fragmented forest landscapes. By placing these findings in a broader conservation and policy context, I discuss the potential contribution of small, unmanaged forest patches to biodiversity conservation and forest management in Europe.
About the speaker ¶
Yanina Benedetti is an ecologist specializing in biodiversity conservation, with a strong focus on avian communities and behavioral ecology, particularly on ecological specialization and biotic homogenization. Her research integrates taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic perspectives to examine how species and communities respond to environmental gradients and human‑driven changes across urban, rural, and natural landscapes.
Using birds’ escape behavior as a proxy of fear to explore their responses to the urbanization process ¶
Speaker: Federico Morelli
Understanding the various effects of urbanization on wildlife and biodiversity is crucial for improving urban and ecological planning in cities. Because behavioral changes often represent the earliest responses to urban pressures, assessing species' behavioral responses within a community is a critical prerequisite for evaluating the direct or indirect consequences for overall biodiversity.
A commonly used metric to investigate how bird species react to (potential) predators is escape behavior, which is measured by flight initiation distance (FID). Flight Initiation Distance (FID) refers to the minimum distance at which an animal begins to escape from an approaching threat. This metric serves as an indicator of antipredator behavior and the animal's tolerance to disturbances. Additionally, it can be used to evaluate and compare the overall stress levels of bird species residing in different urban environments.
This talk focuses on the role of FID as a measure of animal fear and explores how this metric is applied in various ecological studies. In particular, it examines how different characteristics of urban areas (e.g., trees, shrubs, parks, and cemeteries) can influence birds' tolerance to disturbances.
Federico Morelli is an associate professor of ecology and behavioral ecology at the University of Turin. His research interests include the effects of urbanization on wildlife, animal behavioral responses within the framework of urban ecology, farmland and forest bird ecology, as well as biogeography, bioindicators, breeding habitat selection, biotic interactions, and community responses to climate change.
How to join ¶
Our public seminars are hybrid, with the option to attend in-person or online.
The Microsoft Teams meeting link will be published closer to the date.
Biodiversity Seminars ¶
The WSL Biodiversity Seminar Series are organized by the WSL-Eawag Biodiversity Center. Every two weeks, we aim to host a seminar speaker who presents research or outreach on topics relevant to the biodiversity community at WSL. The seminars are public and are usually broadcast online.
To find out more about the WSL-Eawag Biodiversity Center and a complete list of events, please visit our website.
Please send an email to events-biodiversity(at)wsl.ch if you would like to be updated on the activities of the WSL-Eawag Biodiversity Center.