Partitioning beta diversity to untangle mechanisms underlying the assembly of bird communities in Mediterranean olive groves

Bird censuses carried out in the framework of the LIFE project 'Olivares Vivos' (https://olivaresvivos.com) Surveys were conducted using point census stations. At each count point, all individuals detected -seen or heard- within a 100-m radius were identified and counted for 5 min. We set six stations in small olive farms (<25 ha) and 10 in large olive farms (>25 ha). To avoid repeated counts between neighbor census stations, they were located at least 200 m apart in small olive groves and at least 300 m apart in large olive groves. Surveys were carried out monthly in two slots (from April to June 2016, and from September 2016 to March 2017) under favorable weather conditions by a team of skilled ornithologists. Monthly data (abundances) were merged into a single plot x species quantitative matrix used as input in beta-diversity analyses.