Scenarios for protecting European avian redistributions

We will address three thematic priorities to mitigate future expected biodiversity (BD) losses: 1) identifying priority areas and gaps in protected area networks, 2) managing protected areas for multiple benefits (BD and sustainable harvest of game species), and 3) developing multifunctional benefits for agricultural wetlands and wetland networks.

Birds are used as model systems because birds are highly responsive to environmental change and important indicators for ecosystem health.

In 3) we test how to increase wetland BD and multifunctionality in restored, created and protected agricultural wetlands primarily in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

We will model animal communities in relation to wetland attributes such as size, age and habitats, and to management actions implemented at the site We will develop Nature-based Solutions (NbS) to handle observed trade-offs and synergies between BD components (4 taxa) and five ecosystem services (environmental and recreational) to achieve optimal solutions for both BD and ecosystem services at local scale of single wetlands and especially at the landscape scale of regions and catchment areas.

We predict wetland heterogeneity in local and landscape characteristics to benefit the multifunctionality of wetland networks at regional scales and we will model multifunctional landscapes of the future to identify missing wetlands and functions at the regional level (linking to 1) and 2).