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Habitat Structure Outweighs Monastic Legacy in Shaping Bird Assemblages
Łukasz Jankowiak1, Kinga Piórkowska1, Michał Polakowski1
1Department of Ecology and Anthropology, Institute of Biology, University of Szczecin, Wąska 13, 71-899 Szczecin, Poland.
Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI
|May 27, 2026
Summary
Monastic legacies do not significantly impact bird diversity in Poland. Instead, current landscape complexity and habitat structure are the primary drivers of breeding bird assemblages and biodiversity.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Ornithology
- Conservation Biology
Background:
- Sacred natural sites are often proposed as biodiversity refugia in human-modified landscapes.
- The influence of these sites can be obscured by current habitat characteristics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of Cistercian monasteries on breeding bird assemblages in western Poland.
- To differentiate the impact of historical monastic presence from contemporary habitat structure on bird diversity.
Main Methods:
- Standardized 5-minute point counts were conducted at 234 stations across 23 plots.
- Cistercian plots were compared with environmentally matched Control and Post-Cistercian plots.
- Data were analyzed for Shannon diversity and rarefied species richness in relation to plot type and landscape complexity.
Main Results:
- A total of 133 breeding bird species were recorded, dominated by widespread farmland and synanthropic species.
- Neither plot category (Cistercian, Control, Post-Cistercian) nor location (within/outside monastery grounds) influenced bird diversity metrics.
- Bird diversity metrics positively correlated with contemporary landscape complexity, particularly gradients from arable land to grasslands and urban habitats, and heterogeneous agriculture.
Conclusions:
- Present-day habitat structure, not monastic legacy, is the key determinant of breeding bird diversity in this agricultural region.
- Conservation efforts should focus on maintaining and restoring heterogeneous landscapes with semi-natural habitat elements.
- Land-use policies should prioritize landscape complexity to support avian biodiversity in agricultural areas.
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