
Mattia BrambillaUniversity of Milan | UNIMI · Department of Environmental Science and Policy - ESP
Mattia Brambilla
PhD
mostly devoted to alpine birds & climate change, farming & biodiversity, and species-mediated ecosystem services
About
270
Publications
73,150
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Introduction
I am particularly interested in animal (especially bird) ecology and conservation, evolution and phylogeography. Most of my work is now dedicated to conservation, and especially to biodiversity in farmland habitats, effects of climate change, species of conservation concern, monitoring plans of terrestrial Vertebrates, ecological networks from local to regional scale, definition of conservation status and targets for avian species at national scale, ecosystem services.
Additional affiliations
June 2006 - August 2021
Fondazione Lombardia per l'Ambiente
Position
- research consultant
Description
- Biodiversity in farmland habitats, conservation, birds and climate change, monitoring plans, ecological networks, conservation and management of areas and species, conservation status and targets for animal species according to EU Directives.
February 2007 - August 2021
March 2008 - August 2021
LIPU BirdLife Italia
Position
- research consultant
Description
- Conservation status and targets for bird species at the national scale, reporting following Birds Directive, farmland birds, ecology and conservation of threatened species, RDP evaluation, birds of mountain grassland and climate change.
Education
November 2003 - January 2007
October 1998 - April 2003
Publications
Publications (270)
The subalpine warbler Sylvia cantillans is formally considered a polytypic species, with four subspecies, European S. c. cantillans, albistriata, moltonii (recently resumed name: subalpina) and North African S. c.inornata. They are very similar in external morphology but clearly differ in their vocalizations. We evaluated their uncertain taxonomic...
Interspecific interactions are crucial in determining species occurrence and community assembly. Understanding these interactions is thus essential for correctly predicting species' responses to climate change. We focussed on an avian forest guild of four hole-nesting species with differing sensitivities to climate, that show a range of well-unders...
Identifying climate refugia is key to effective biodiversity conservation under a changing climate, especially for mountain‐specialist species adapted to cold conditions and highly threatened by climate warming. We combined species distribution models (SDMs) with climate forecasts to identify climate refugia for high‐elevation bird species (Lagopus...
Agricultural intensification is a main threat to biodiversity, and vineyards are particularly concerning because of their increasing extent and intensive management. Management strategies that mitigate vineyard impacts on biodiversity are urgently needed.
In a major wine area in northern Italy, we tested in a 3‐year experiment the effect of alterna...
The use of species distribution models (SDMs) to predict local abundance has been often proposed and contested. We tested whether SDMs at different spatiotemporal resolutions may predict the local density of 14 bird species of open/semi‐open habitats. SDMs were built at 1 ha and 1 km, and with long‐term versus a mix of current and long‐term climati...
Intensive, industrialized agriculture is considered a major driver of pollinator decline and viticulture may play a relevant role in this context. A global priority is to find ways to decrease the agricultural impact on biodiversity and to undertake an ecological intensification of farms, especially for maintaining pollinator biodiversity. To recom...
The Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM–GBF) envisions a world living in harmony with nature by 2050, with 23 intermediate targets to be achieved by 2030. However, aligning international policy and national and local implementation of effective actions can be challenging. Using steppe birds, one of the most threatened vertebrate grou...
Climate and environmental changes are dramatically impacting mountain ecosystems, species and livelihoods. Alpine species are contracting as a response to global change and human impacts. Climate refugia are crucial sites for conservation, because they will preserve suitable conditions for biodiversity in the face of climate change. Outdoor recreat...
Context: Pollination is an essential ecosystem service, and primary pollinators such as insects are largely declining. Agricultural intensification is one of the main drivers of such decline. The globally relevant apple production depends on this service. Apple orchards are often cultivated intensively over large monocultural landscapes, which are...
The morphology of bird wings can vary at the intraspecific level according to a variety of factors including sex, age, migration habits and habitat characteristics. The relationship between wing morphology and ecological factors such as, e.g., habitat availability and vegetation structure has been scarcely investigated and is still poorly understoo...
Food availability shapes species distribution with important links to ecological patterns. Among terrestrial ecosystems, arthropods play a crucial role within food webs. Bird species tend to adjust their reproductive and seasonal patterns to arthropod abundance. Assessing the outcomes of bird-arthropod interaction is crucial under ongoing global ch...
Intraspecific morphological variation of organisms is known to be influenced by several factors, but the role of habitat availability has been scarcely investigated. Studying bird wing morphology is ideal to explore this topic, given the usually rapid response of birds to environmental changes, but other factors such as sexual dimorphism, habitat s...
Forests of urban/suburban areas are being increasingly restored, but before/after-control/impact studies addressing effects on biodiversity in peri-urban forest restorations are virtually lacking. Using a before/after-control/impact (BACI) design, we explored the effects on birds (commonly used as indicators for restoration impacts) of small-scale...
Conservation efforts are needed in the face of the rapid decline in farmland birds over the past decades. While existing conservation strategies have shown limited success, there is a growing recognition of the role of farmers as primary stakeholders in agroecosystems conservation. We applied the "Human Dimension" approach, which emphasizes the imp...
Climate change is having dramatic impacts on the distribution of animals. Birds, and especially steppe-land birds, are particularly sensitive to climate change and identifying areas that are critical for their conservation is pivotal, as well as estimating the expected impact on these areas under different climate and land use change scenarios. In-...
Microhabitat utilisation holds a pivotal role in shaping a species’ ecological dynamics and stands as a crucial concern for effective conservation strategies. Despite its critical importance, microhabitat use has frequently been addressed as static, centering on microhabitat preference. Yet, a dynamic microhabitat use that allows individuals to adj...
Insectivorous birds are key suppliers of crucial ecosystem services, especially important for pest control in agricultural systems, and are globally decreasing at a fast rate. Among them, the declining barn swallow Hirundo rustica is particularly linked to cattle farms, where it is impacted by changes in livestock husbandry practices.
The presence...
The non-breeding distribution and ecology of many migratory songbirds are often poorly studied, but very relevant for their conservation in a changing climate. The Snow Bunting is the most northerly breeding passerine worldwide, and winters in temperate/temperate-cold areas. Char-acterised by specialisation for cold climate and strong migratory con...
The population dynamics of urban animals has been so far remarkably understudied. At the same time, urban species’ population trends can provide important information on the consequences of environmental changes in cities. We modelled long-term population trends of 93 bird species breeding in urban areas in 16 European countries as a function of sp...
Biodiversity loss is a global issue, particularly in mountain regions, where land-use/land-cover and climate change dramatically impact on species and communities. Sound ecological research and up-to-date information on biodiversity are needed to support conservation efforts. However, this information is often difficult and costly to obtain. Theref...
Aim: High-elevation specialist species are threatened by climate change and habitat
loss, and their distributions are becoming increasingly reduced and fragmented. In such a context, dispersal ability is crucial to maintain gene flow among patches of suitable habitat. However, information about dispersal is often lacking for these species, especial...
Summary: We evaluated the effects of the Rural Development Program (PSR, 2014-2020) in Tren-to province on grassland biodiversity, using birds as indicators. Bird data were collected through the monitoring carried out within the framework of N2000 activities (years 2016-2019). 112 species had been reported, and a negative effect of ongoing environm...
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) envisions a world living in harmony with nature by 2050, with 23 intermediate targets to be achieved by 2030. However, aligning international policy and local implementation of effective actions can be challenging. Using steppe birds, one of the most threatened vertebrate groups in Europe,...
Cold-adapted species endangered by global change are crucial cases for understanding range dynamics and its interface with conservation. In view of climate change and their sensitivity, Alpine insects should modify their distribution by reducing ranges, while being unable of sufficient displacements and mostly moving uphill. To test these hypothese...
The Alpine landscape has undergone significant transformation over millions of years due to both abiotic and biotic processes, as well as human activities in recent millennia. This European Mountain region is a vital habitat for numerous endemic species adapted to extreme environments, making it an important biodiversity hotspot. However, human act...
Biodiversity loss is a global issue, particularly in mountain regions, where land-use/land-cover and climate change are its main drivers. To support conservation efforts, robust ecological research and recent up-to-date information on biodiversity are needed. However, obtaining this information is often difficult and costly. Therefore, bioindicator...
Biodiversity, ecosystem services and farming are inextricably linked. Peri-urban agricultural landscapes host wild species, provide essential services, and benefit citizens of nearby towns. We investigated the environmental and management factors that influence avian communities, pollinating insects and two key ecosystem services (pollination and n...
Modelling distributions of species and communities is a key task for modern ecological research and conservation planning. Modelling mountain birds has specific challenges: mountain environments are characterized by steep gradients, where conditions in terms of climate, topography and habitat change markedly over relatively small scales. Moreover,...
Riaasunto: Il presente lavoro sintetizza le attività di monitoraggio e ricerca sullo stato di conservazio-ne dell'avifauna nidificante nelle principali aree prative e pascolate del Trentino nelle stagioni riproduttive dal 2015 al 2022. È stata adottata una tecnica di censimento standardizzata (transetti lineari) volta a definire la densità delle sp...
Understanding the main drivers of biodiversity loss in Europe's agricultural landscapes has been a research priority in the last decades. One of the most important factors promoting biodiversity in farmed landscapes is habitat heterogeneity, which has often proved crucial for avian species and communities. Birds are highly sensitive to environmenta...
Species living in high mountain areas are currently threatened by climate change and human land use changes. High-elevation birds frequently inhabit island-like suitable patches around mountain peaks, and in such conditions the capability to exchange individuals among patches is crucial to maintain gene flow. However, we lack information about disp...
This paper introduces an online tool that supports the implementation of artificial tree-hollows for birds, mammals, and other organisms. As a team of designers and ecologists, we seek to address species extinctions, support urban biodiversity, and ameliorate conflicts between human and nonhuman beings. Recent efforts among built-environment profes...
La presenza e la distribuzione degli uccelli nidificanti in Italia sono cambiate negli ultimi decenni in misura rilevante come conseguenza di modificazioni ambientali, spesso indotte dall’uomo, dei cambiamenti climatici e culturali intervenuti. È quanto emerge da questo nuovo Atlante, che arriva quasi quattro decenni dopo il primo, che aveva copert...
The morphology of bird wings is subject to a variety of selective pressures, including migration, predation, habitat structure and sexual selection. Variation in wing morphology also occurs at the intraspecific and intrapopulation level, and can be related to sex, age, migration strategy and environmental factors. The relationship between environme...
In contrast to old-growth forests, early-successional stands remain understudied despite potentially harbouring species of conservation interest. With this work, focused on hazel grouse Tetrastes bonasia , a cryptic and indicator species known to select for close-to-natural forests, we evaluated winter densities, home range, microhabitat selection...
Linking organism distribution to climate is key to understanding factors determining species occurrence and evaluating the potential impacts of ongoing climate change. A common analytical tool to assess the link between species and climate is represented by ecological niche modelling and by the tightly related species distribution models (SDMs). Th...
Understanding the effects of landscape composition and configuration, climate, and topography on bird diversity is necessary to identify distribution drivers, potential impacts of land use changes, and future conservation strategies. We surveyed bird communities in a study area located in the Central Alps (Autonomous Province of South Tyrol, northe...
Research activity financed by RIBA-RIcerca di Base 2021
Aim: Understanding the relationships between territorial management and ES in rural mountain areas considering CC and its impacts on biodiversity, agricultural practices, landscape and "nature-based" recreation
Pilot Area: Oltrepò Pavese (SNIA)
In the last decade, Aedes koreicus and Aedes japonicus japonicus mosquitoes, which are competent vectors for various arboviruses of public health relevance, colonised Italy and other European countries. Nevertheless, information about their current and potential distribution is partial. Accordingly, in this study four regions of Northern Italy (Lom...
Fine‐scale habitat selection modelling can allow a mechanistic understanding of habitat selection processes, enabling better assessments of the effects of climate and habitat changes on biodiversity. Remotely sensed data provide an ever‐increasing amount of environmental and climatic variables at high spatio‐temporal resolutions, and a unique oppor...
Climate warming and land-use change are reshuffling the distribution of wild organisms on a global scale. Some species may expand their ranges and colonize new regions, which may greatly affect ecological interactions among pre-existing species and colonizers. In the last decades, such processes have originated a unique condition of sympatry among...
Understanding and disentangle the effects of landscape composition and configuration, climate, and topography on bird diversity is necessary to identify distribution factors, potential impacts of land-use changes, and future conservation strategies. We studied bird taxonomic and functional diversity within the Biodiversity Monitoring South Tyrol at...
Unravelling the environmental factors driving species distribution and abundance is crucial in ecology and conservation. Both climatic and land cover factors are often used to describe species distribution/abundance, but their interrelations have been scarcely investigated. Climatic factors may indeed affect species both directly and indirectly, e....
Agricultural intensification is threatening ecosystems and causing the collapse of farmland birds. Biodiversity-rich, semi-natural grasslands dramatically decreased in recent decades and were either intensified, replaced by more remunerative crops or abandoned. We investigated the factors driving habitat selection by corncrake Crex crex, a flagship...
Aim
Cold‐adapted species are considered vulnerable to climate change. However, our understanding of how climate‐induced changes in habitat and weather patterns will influence habitat suitability remains poorly understood, particularly for species at high latitudes or elevations. Here, we assessed potential future distributions for a climate‐sensiti...
Individuazione della lista di specie ornitiche che compongono l'indicatore "Popolazioni di uccelli sensibili ai prodotti fitosanitari", facente parte del set di indicatori per il monitoraggio e la valutazione del Piano d'Azione nazionale per l'uso sostenibile dei Prodotti Fitosanitari.
Lo scopo dell'indicatore è di rilevare gli effetti delle prati...
2020 update brochure of the Farmland Bird Index (FBI) and Mountain Grassland Species Index (FBIpm) indicators and of the population indices of the related species.
In-depth analysis on the project lasting 12 years on research on birds breeding in farmland areas in Italy and on the conservation of farmland birds in Italy: challenges, research and pr...
2018 update brochure of the Farmland Bird Index (FBI) and Mountain Grassland Species Index (FBIpm) indicators and of the population indices of the related species.
In-depth analysis on the ecosystem services of common breeding bird species.
2016 update brochure of the Farmland Bird Index (FBI) and Mountain Grassland Species Index (FBIpm) indicators and of the population indices of the related species.
In-depth analysis on cap, birds and alpine meadows and the success of generalist species
Many animals make behavioural changes to cope with winter conditions, being gregariousness a common strategy. Several factors have been invoked to explain why gregariousness may evolve during winter, with individuals coming together and separating as they trade off the different costs and benefits of living in groups. These trade-offs may, however,...
Conserving functionally diverse bird communities in European farmland is becoming critical, with no exception for regions of wine production. Management intensification combined with the loss of semi‐natural habitats in wine‐growing landscapes has led to a long‐term decline not only in birds of conservation concern but also in once common insectivo...
Marmora’s Warbler ( Curruca sarda ) and Balearic Warbler ( C. balearica ) are allopatric sibling species and were recently split mostly based on morphological and ethological characteristics. Here we provide the first phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses of this species complex to support the taxonomic status of C. sarda and C. balearica in li...
The genus Crocidura (Eulipotyphla, Soricidae) is the most speciose genus amongst mammals, i.e., it includes the highest number of species. Different species are distinguished by skull morphology, which often prevents the identification of individuals in the field and limits research on these species' ecology and biology. We combined species distrib...
Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) are the non-material benefits that people get from ecosystems; they have been less frequently investigated and incorporated into the decision-making processes in comparison to other ES. Ecosystems may also provide Cultural Ecosystem Disservices (CED), because of the bad feelings or perceptions they trigger. Nature-...
The COVID-19 pandemic zoonosis has determined extensive lockdowns worldwide that provide an unprecedented opportunity to understand how large-scale shifts of human activities can impact wildlife. We addressed the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on wildlife in Italy, the first European country that performed a countrywide lockdown, and identified p...
We revise the taxonomy of the Sylvia cantillans complex, a group of phenotypically distinct warblers with mainly parapatric distributions around a large part of the Mediterranean basin. We redefine the species limits using a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear markers and we objectively link available names to the genetically defined lineages...
Territorial interactions between animals involve correlated signaling and direct actions, yet different species vary in how they utilize each component. In theory, opponents should balance costs and benefits of territorial interactions, and restrict their conflicts to signaling when physical interactions are likely to escalate to serious injuries....
Protected areas (PAs) have been established to promote the long-term conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems. Wetlands, which represent a key habitat worldwide, have been largely destroyed, particularly in more industrialized countries, and their remnants are now often preserved by PA networks, especially in the European Union. We tested the ef...
Climate and land-use change are the most severe threats to biodiversity; their effects are often intermingled, also with those of landscape/habitat management. Birds of mountain grassland are declining throughout Europe. Disentangling climate effects from those of land-cover and management on their occurrence is essential to identify distribution d...
Sombre Tit (Poecile lugubris) is one of the least studied passerine bird species in Europe, and the least known among Paridae species on the continent. The aim of the study is to identify its habitat preferences in a karst environment. The study took place in 2016–2017 within the “Rayanovtsi” Special Protection Area in Western Bulgaria – a limeston...
Mountain ecosystems are inhabited by highly specialised and endemic species which are particularly susceptible to climatic changes. However, the mechanisms by which climate change affects species population dynamics are still largely unknown, particularly for mountain birds. We investigated how weather variables correlate with survival or movement...