Urban and industrial landscapes interact with microhabitat to predict occurrence of European Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur) in Mediterranean oases: Implications for conservation

Abstract

The assessment of the impact of urban and industrial landscapes on the occurrence of vulnerable species is one key step in the view to maintaining them in environments that are becoming urbanised. In the present study, we aimed to investigate this issue with regards to the vulnerable European Turtle Dove (TD) (Streptopelia turtur) in the coastal Mediterranean oases. Here, we used data on a series of variables, including microhabitat and urban-industrial landscapes, to identify the best predictors that cause variation in the probability of TD occurrence by means of generalized linear mixed models. The results revealed a significant interaction between the distance to the industrial complex and coverage of fruit trees at the microhabitat scale in explaining this probability (Adj. R2 = 22%; P = 0.001). This probability becomes higher than 0.50 when the distance from the industrial complex is more than 8 km and the cover of fruit trees is above 30%. A high probability of TD occurrence is also recorded in the presence of a very weak cover of urban areas. In the Gabès region, the highest probability of TD occurrence was recorded in the southern oases, thus highlighting their central role in conserving this Columbidae. For the species’ conservation, it is imperative to (i) uninstall the Gabès industrial complex from this coastal Mediterranean area, (ii) protect the southern oases, which constitute important breeding areas for the species in the south-east of Tunisia, (iii) enhance habitat quality in the farthest oases from the industrial complex, and (iv) set up a monitoring system aiming to quantify the impact of urban growth on this North African TD population.