Long-term game species dynamic as indicator for changing landscape quality

Area of Science:

• Ecology and Wildlife Management
• Landscape Ecology
• Conservation Biology

Background:

• Modern land-use changes (urban sprawl, intensive agriculture, forestry) have significantly impacted habitat quality for wildlife since the mid-20th century.
• Limited methods exist to quantitatively assess long-term landscape quality for species conservation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of landscape structure and quality on game species populations over 150 years in South Tyrol, Italy.
• To assess population dynamics of 28 game species and habitat guilds using historical harvest data.
• To evaluate changes in landscape quality for different game species and habitat types.

Main Methods:

• Utilized 150 years of harvest data (since 1870) for 28 game species in South Tyrol to infer population dynamics.
• Validated harvest data against population count data for six representative species, confirming high correlation.
• Analyzed trends in ungulate, mesocarnivore, forest, alpine, farmland, and synanthropic game species populations.

Main Results:

• Harvest data strongly correlate with population counts, serving as a reliable proxy for population size estimation.
• Ungulate populations showed consistent increases; mesocarnivore and small game species populations peaked in the 1970s/80s before declining.
• Farmland and some synanthropic species populations have substantially decreased, with some extinctions; agricultural habitats have lost quality, while forests/alpine areas show recent declines.

Conclusions:

• Landscape quality for game species in South Tyrol has diverged, with significant degradation of agricultural habitats.
• Forest and alpine regions initially benefited from land-use changes but are now experiencing declining quality, particularly for small game.
• Findings provide actionable insights for improving landscape quality for farmland and forest species and inform conservation funding priorities for alpine pasture management.