Areas used for livestock production and dominated by native grasses represent a unique opportunity to reconcile biodiversity conservation and livestock production. However, limited knowledge of individual species’ responses to rangeland management restricts our capacity to design grazing practices that favor endangered species and other priority birds. In this work, we applied Hierarchical Modelling of Species Communities (HMSC) to study individual species responses, as well as the influence of traits on such responses, to variables related to rangeland management using birds of the Rio de la Plata Grasslands as a case study. Based on presence–absence data collected in 454 paddocks across 46 ranches we inferred the response of 69 species considering imperfect detection. This degree of detail fills a major gap in rangeland management, as species-level responses can be used to achieve targeted conservation goals other than maximizing richness or abundance. We found that artificial pastures had an overall negative impact on many bird species, whereas the presence of tussocks had a positive effect, including all threatened species. Grassland specialists were in general sensitive to grass height and tended to respond positively to tussocks but negatively to tree cover. Controlling grass height via adjustments in stocking rate can be a useful tool to favor grassland specialists. To favor a wide range of bird species in ranches, a mosaic of short and tall native grasslands with patches of tussocks and trees is desirable. We also found that species-specific responses were modulated by their traits: small-sized birds responded positively to tussocks and tree cover while large species responded negatively to increasing grass height. Ground foragers preferred short grass while birds that scarcely use this stratum were not affected by grass height. Results on the influence of traits on bird responses are an important novelty in relation to previous work in rangelands and potentially increase our predicting capacity and model transferability across grassland regions.

中文翻译：

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鸟类对牧场管理的反应与其特征相关：以拉普拉塔河草原为例

用于畜牧生产并以原生草为主的地区代表了协调生物多样性保护和畜牧生产的独特机会。然而，对单个物种对牧场管理的反应的了解有限，限制了我们设计有利于濒危物种和其他优先鸟类的放牧实践的能力。在这项工作中，我们应用物种群落层次模型 (HMSC) 来研究个体物种对牧场管理相关变量的反应以及性状对此类反应的影响，并以拉普拉塔河草原鸟类作为案例研究。根据在 46 个牧场的 454 个围场收集的存在/不存在数据，我们推断了考虑到不完善检测的 69 个物种的反应。这种程度的细节填补了牧场管理的一个主要空白，因为物种层面的反应可用于实现有针对性的保护目标，而不是最大化丰富度或丰度。我们发现，人工牧场对许多鸟类产生总体负面影响，而草丛的存在则产生积极影响，包括所有受威胁物种。草原专家通常对草高度敏感，并且倾向于对草丛做出积极反应，但对树木覆盖率做出消极反应。通过调整载畜量来控制草高度可能是有利于草原专家的有用工具。为了有利于牧场中的各种鸟类，需要将高矮的原生草原与成片的草丛和树木镶嵌在一起。我们还发现，物种特异性反应受到其特征的调节：小型鸟类对草丛和树木覆盖做出积极反应，而大型物种对草高度的增加做出消极反应。地面觅食者更喜欢短草，而几乎不使用该地层的鸟类则不受草高度的影响。性状对鸟类反应影响的结果相对于之前的牧场工作来说是一个重要的新颖性，并有可能提高我们的预测能力和模型在草原地区的可移植性。