Landscape metrics as indicators of avian community structures – A state of the art review

Abstract

In this state-of-the-art review, we investigate the use of landscape metrics in landscape ecology studies to predict structure of avian communities. We reviewed papers published in international peer-reviewed journals indexed by Web of Science Core, from January 2010 to December 2021. We give an overview of the study methods used in the past twelve years, the type of landscapes investigated, and the most important landscape metrics that show a significant influence on the ecological parameters of bird community distribution. We demonstrate that study designs are highly variable and thus only comparable to a limited extent. We identify multiple factors of spatial data usage that are important in determining the characterisation of landscape pattern and affect the outcome of analysis in landscape ecology that need to be standardised to allow simplification and generalization of results. Few empirical studies exist which describe the indicator value of landscape metrics comprehensively, taking into account different spatial scales, thematic resolution, landscapes and species, and the need for conducting such surveys in order to be able to use landscape metrics as a biodiversity monitoring tool in a targeted way.