Matteo Anderle erhält den Stefan M. Gergely-Preis 2025 für seine Dissertation Assessing the Impact of Habitat and Landscape Heterogeneity and Land-Use Characteristics on Mountain Bird Communities, and the Effectiveness of Birds as Indicator of Overall Biodiversity.
Birds are a crucial component of Alpine biodiversity, yet their ecology remains understudied. While birds have proven effective indicators of general biodiversity patterns, mountain birds are still poorly understood as proxies for the diversity of other taxa in Alpine regions. This knowledge gap is exacerbated by the complexity of the Alpine environment, with its unique biodiversity, ecological dynamics, and the intricate interplay of global changes impacting this region. Many mountain birds inhabit complex, heterogeneous habitats spread across diverse ecological gradients, posing challenges to comprehensive studies. Moreover, the Alps are experiencing significant global changes, including climate and land-use changes, which affect ecosystem functioning, ecological patterns, and community composition. Understanding mountain bird ecology and their roles in the ecosystem is crucial for developing effective and timely conservation strategies.
This doctoral thesis analyzes the drivers affecting mountain bird communities using diverse methodologies. In synthesis, it contributes to the understanding of Alpine bird ecology, their potential as ecological and taxa-based bioindicators, and the intricate relationships of ecological factors shaping their communities. It offers valuable insights for the conservation of Alpine biodiversity and provides a foundation for future research and conservation efforts in the Alps and similar mountain regions.
Matteo Anderle is a post-doctoral researcher at Eurac Research, specializing in biodiversity monitoring and bioacoustics. He holds a degree in Wildlife and Environmental Management (University of Florence) and a PhD in Biology (University of Innsbruck). His research topics focused on different aspects of the ecology of alpine bird communities, ranging from the influences of landscape composition and intensity, bird habitat preferences, the ecology of high-altitude specialist bird species, and bird migration along the Alps.
Since 2019 he has been responsible for bird monitoring within a long-term biodiversity monitoring in South Tyrol (Italy), using direct and passive acoustic monitoring techniques. He also collaborates on specific projects aimed at assessing the microhabitat preferences of highly specialised and endangered species (e.g. high-elevational specialists and grassland birds). He is involved as bird ringer in a project aimed at monitoring bird migration and wintering populations within the Alps. Matteo recently won a grant and leads the granted project intitled “SOUNDSCAPES FOR ALL: An integrated framework for the analysis of acoustic environments for humans and non-human species in mountain environments” in collaboration with the university of Trento and the University Collage of London. Finally, he is coordinating a national passive acoustic monitoring within 22 national parks.