Bernhard Paces

BirdLife Austria · Conservation and Science

Habitat loss and degradation are key drivers of the current biodiversity crisis. Most research focuses on the question of which traits allow species to persist in degraded habitats. We asked whether a species' trophic position or niche width influences the resilience of species in degraded habitats and to what extent habitat degradation affects tro...

At three bird ringing stations in eastern Austria, a total of 298 louse flies of nine different species were collected between 2013 and 2022. These came from a total of 228 birds of 38 different species of predominantly passerine birds. The records of Icosta minor (Bigot in thomson, 1858) and Ornithomya chloropus (Bergroth, 1901) are the only ones...

Migratory birds are often not specifically adapted to arid conditions, yet several species travel across deserts during their journeys, and often have more or less short stopovers there. We investigated whether differences in thermoregulatory mechanisms, specifically evaporative cooling, explain the different behavior of three passerine species whi...

Habitat loss and degradation are key drivers of species extinction in the current biodiversity crisis. Therefore, research is focusing on the question which traits enable some species to utilize degraded habitats while others cannot. In particular, little is known about how a species’ trophic position or niche width influences its potential to...

Although the protection of tropical primary forests is of primary importance for conservation , secondary forests may help to reduce increasing forest fragmentation and related biodiversity loss. This study from the Pacific lowlands of Costa Rica evaluates the potential of secondary forests to provide additional habitat and to act as stepping stone...