Bats are important natural enemies of agricultural pests, yet their role in heterogeneous landscapes like the European bocage remains understudied. These landscapes host diverse bat communities that may enhance pest suppression in crops. However, their heterogeneity could also hamper pest consumption due to greater alternative prey availability. Understanding dietary variation among bat species and across seasons is key to assessing their contribution to pest control. We conducted a dietary DNA-metabarcoding study in a bocage landscape in Asturias, northern Spain, to investigate pest consumption by three common European bat species: Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, and Rhinolophus hipposideros. Our study focused on identifying agricultural pest species in their faecal contents and on examining variation in pest consumption among species and across seasons. We identified 191 pest species in bat diets potentially affecting a wide range of crops. Overall, bats consistently consumed agricultural pests throughout the year, though we observed some seasonal variation in pest richness and composition. Although our analyses revealed substantial overlap in pest consumption among the three bat species, they also showed clear differences in the specific pest taxa consumed and the frequency of consumption. These results highlight both complementarity and partial functional overlap among bat species in their consumption of agricultural pests, underscoring their collective role in maintaining resilient pest control services across time and crop types within bocage landscapes.

Passive rewilding is an important restoration strategy that promotes ecosystem recovery in meaningful areas with little or no human intervention. To assess the success of this approach toward biodiversity conservation aims, new monitoring tools should be developed based on the understanding that ecosystem recovery is not a linear process either in space or time. Considering that native forests are primary targets of passive rewilding strategies due to their potential to promote biodiversity and ecological resilience, we propose a spatially explicit index of passive forest recovery that integrates the concepts of ecosystem complexity and successional dynamics. Land cover class was an indicator of ecosystem complexity, increasing from non-woody ecosystems to heathlands-shrublands and native forests. Land cover transitions allowed the assessment of successional dynamics. The index was implemented using an enhanced multi-temporal series of CORINE land cover data (1990-2018) and tested in the Spanish Ibero-Atlantic Region. Spatial patterns of passive forest recovery were evaluated using patch-level landscape metrics, while socio-ecological drivers were explored with decision tree regression models. We found that 12.71 % of the study area experienced passive recovery (annual average rate of 302 km2) and 9.90 % suffered one to three regressions along the successional dynamics. Passive forest recovery varied along geographic gradients, with patches strongly aggregated according to recovery trends, and was driven by geographic position, human accessibility and climate. The index developed here provides a tool for understanding spatio-temporal patterns of rewilding in temperate regions under rural restructuring and for integrating this complexity in conservation policies at regional scale.

Abstract Birds and bats are relevant natural enemies of pests in fruit crops. However, by preying also on arthropod natural enemies, they may act as intraguild predators that can lead to pest release. Disentangling how these two groups intervene in different ecological relationships is thus essential to understand their relative contribution and complementarity in pest control provision. We used dietary DNA metabarcoding to build tri‐trophic networks that account for direct and indirect interactions among top predators (birds and bats), mesopredators (spiders) and pests (insects) in apple and blueberry crops. To identify species closely linked to pests, we estimated modularity. To evaluate their topological and tri‐trophic role, we quantified their centrality and the extent of distinct predatory pathways in their diets (i.e. direct pest predation, intraguild predation or both). Finally, in the case of birds in apple crop, we tested if the topological and tri‐trophic role of species depended on their abundance, degree of insectivory and morphological traits. The network was modular in both crops, with birds and bats occupying distinct modules feeding on different prey. Bats tended to be more directly connected to pests than birds, which were more frequently involved in intraguild predation. Among birds in the apple crop, higher abundance increased direct pest predation, whereas greater insectivory favoured intraguild predation. Morphology further shaped topological position, with smaller species with less pointed wings demonstrating higher centrality values. Birds and bats showed different and complementary roles in pest control service, a pattern consistent among fruit crops. Both vertebrate groups were associated with different prey, and birds were more prone to promote pest release than bats, although such effect was weaker for common and less insectivorous species. Synthesis and applications . Our study highlights that by combining interaction networks, tri‐trophic cascades and species traits, we can better understand the role of species on the control of pests in fruit crops. In particular, our results point out that promoting bats and abundant birds may be an efficient strategy to enhance pest control in fruit orchards.

Damage and consumption of crops by vertebrates represent a significant source of conflict between humans and wildlife. This is particularly relevant in the context of small-fruit crops, such as blueberries, which are highly conspicuous, small-sized, and situated close to the ground, allowing a wide range of vertebrate species to swallow them whole and in large quantities. In the present study, we assessed the patterns of blueberry consumption by birds and mammals, and the effect of consumption on crop yield, in blueberry orchards in northern Spain. To this end, we characterised the fruit-eating vertebrate community through direct observation and camera traps in blueberry orchards, and conducted exclusion experiments in blueberry cultivars that ripen at different dates. The study was conducted in eight orchards over two consecutive years. We recorded 14 bird species and four mammal species consuming blueberries, with common blackbird (Turdus merula L.) and wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) accounting for more than 80 % of consumption events. Whereas frugivory by blackbirds was observed across orchards and cultivars, blueberry foraging by wild boar was highly localised. The exclusion experiments evidenced a negative impact of vertebrate frugivory on blueberry production. However, this impact was not homogeneous across sites, ranging from no impact to 74 % of yield loss. Similarly, vertebrate impact depended on the cultivar, with the early ripening cultivar being more susceptible to yield losses than late ripening cultivars. Further research is needed to ascertain what extrinsic (orchard and landscape structure) and intrinsic (abundance and physiological requirements of vertebrates) factors are responsible for the observed variability in yield loss across sites and cultivars. In terms of management, we recommend to prioritise bird deterrent methods to minimise the negative impact of vertebrates.

Abstract Bats are acknowledged as suppliers of essential ecosystem services such as insect pest control in agroecosystems. Little is known, however, on how bat assemblages respond to the gradients imposed by anthropogenic landscapes and farming practices and how these environmental effects translate into changes in bat foraging. In this study, we use cider apple crop in northern Spain as a model to address the filtering effects of landscape composition and orchard management on, simultaneously, quantitative and qualitative characteristics of bat local assemblages and their foraging activity. For that, we carried out acoustic monitoring of bats and sampled pest moth abundance across a wider range of apple orchards covering different landscape contexts and local management conditions. We found that bat assemblages markedly varied across orchards, according mostly to landscape composition gradients but with contrasting landscape effects on different assemblage characteristics. Namely, higher levels of rural urbanization and lower cover of seminatural woody habitats around orchards promoted bat total activity and the number of bat species/species complexes. However, this also altered bat assemblage composition, increasing dominance by the most abundant species, and decreased bat functional diversity. Additionally, a greater cover of apple tree canopy within the orchards decreased bat total activity. Landscape gradients led into predictable variations of bat foraging activity, suggesting a potential persistence of pest control services even in landscapes with limited seminatural habitat cover. The present study highlights the differential responses of bat assemblages to apple crop landscape and orchard‐scale conditions, hindering the establishment of straightforward management guidelines. Further analysis on the relationship between bat assemblage characteristics and pest control is necessary to understand how ecosystem services can be promoted through management in the apple agroecosystem.

Insectivorous birds provide an essential ecosystem service in agriculture by feeding on arthropods considered pests but can also consume arthropods considered to be natural enemies of such pests. Therefore, depending on the dietary composition of the birds, intraguild predation could outweigh pest control services. This study addressed the agronomic quality, defined as the trade-off between ecosystem services (pest control) and disservices (intraguild predation), of 26 insectivorous bird species in culturally and economically important cider apple orchards in northern Spain. We used DNA-metabarcoding techniques to analyze birds' diets. First, we examined whether the trophic position of bird species can be inferred from functional traits related to foraging and movement behavior and from the degree of insectivory in their diets. Then, we tested whether bird abundance and trophic position influenced agronomic quality, based on the proportion of arthropod crop pests and natural enemies in their diet. Finally, we combined bird abundance, insectivory, and agronomic quality to infer the potential contribution of each bird species to pest control. Bird trophic position was positively related to the degree of insectivory, with this effect being modulated by traits related to body size. The trophic position of birds was inversely related to their agronomic quality. Nevertheless, the agronomic quality only slightly affected the differential contribution of bird species to the whole assemblage effect. Overall, we found the potential of insectivorous bird species to control pests can be estimated based on their trophic position. Yet, in agroecosystems with uneven avian species abundance, the potential contribution of bird species to pest control services may be driven by their quantitative contribution rather than by the bird's per capita, qualitative effects. Finally, our results suggest that rare insectivorous birds may have a redundant role in pest control, due to the overwhelming functional dominance of common species. center dot The impact of insectivorous birds on crops depends on whether they consume crop pests or the natural enemies of pests.center dot We studied the diet of 26 insectivorous bird species in apple orchards in northern Spain, identifying arthropod prey species from DNA remains in bird feces.center dot We calculated how many pests each bird species eats in relation to natural enemies and how much these bird species contribute to pest control.center dot We found that bird species that consume relatively more arthropods as a part of their general diet also consume more natural enemy arthropods.center dot The abundance of each bird species mainly determines its effect on pest control. Las aves insect & iacute;voras desempe & ntilde;an un papel clave en los agroecosistemas al alimentarse de plagas, aunque tambi & eacute;n consumen otros enemigos naturales de estas plagas, lo que condiciona su efecto neto sobre los cultivos. Evaluamos la calidad agron & oacute;mica de las especies de aves, definida como el balance compensatorio entre el control de plagas (servicio) y la depredaci & oacute;n intragremial (diservicio). Mediante t & eacute;cnicas de c & oacute;digo de barras de ADN analizamos las dietas de 26 especies de aves insect & iacute;voras en plantaciones de manzano de sidra del norte de Espa & ntilde;a, un cultivo de relevancia cultural y econ & oacute;mica. Investigamos si el grado de insectivor & iacute;a y las caracter & iacute;sticas funcionales relacionadas con la b & uacute;squeda de alimento permiten inferir la posici & oacute;n tr & oacute;fica de las aves. Adem & aacute;s, exploramos c & oacute;mo la abundancia y la posici & oacute;n tr & oacute;fica de las aves influyen en su calidad agron & oacute;mica, medida a partir de la proporci & oacute;n de plagas y enemigos naturales en su dieta. Por & uacute;ltimo, combinamos abundancia, insectivor & iacute;a y calidad agron & oacute;mica para estimar la contribuci & oacute;n potencial de cada especie al control de plagas. Nuestros resultados muestran que las aves m & aacute;s insect & iacute;voras tienden a ocupar posiciones tr & oacute;ficas m & aacute;s altas, siendo este efecto modulado por su tama & ntilde;o corporal. Sin embargo, una posici & oacute;n tr & oacute;fica m & aacute;s alta se asocia con una menor calidad agron & oacute;mica, lo que implica un mayor impacto negativo sobre los enemigos naturales de las plagas. Pese a ello, a calidad agron & oacute;mica tiene un peso limitado en la contribuci & oacute;n de las especies de aves al efecto global de la comunidad. Concluimos que la posici & oacute;n tr & oacute;fica predice el potencial de control de plagas de las especies de aves. No obstante, en sistemas con abundancias de especies desiguales, la contribuci & oacute;n de cada especie depende m & aacute;s de su abundancia relativa que de su eficacia individual. Finalmente, nuestros hallazgos sugieren que las aves raras tienen un rol redundante en el control de plagas, mientras que las m & aacute;s abundantes dominan funcionalmente este servicio.

Curbing farmland bird decline is one of the environmental goals of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027. Member State Strategic Plans must include specific measures within their Green Architecture (enhanced conditionality, eco-schemes and rural development interventions) to address this goal, whose effectiveness must be tested directly. We evaluated whether interventions included in the Spanish CAP Strategic Plan (PEPAC) to favour farmland birds would reach its goal by means of an ex ante evaluation. Spain is a stronghold for farmland birds in Europe and knowledge of their habitat requirements and responses to agricultural management has been reviewed recently. We analysed interventions included in the PEPAC to explicitly favour farmland birds and evaluated whether each of these interventions would address bird requirements fully, partially or not at all. We estimated the proportion of requirements fulfilled by the PEPAC for each Spanish Autonomous Region (in Spain, rural development interventions depend on regional governments, while conditionality and eco-schemes depend on the central government). We evaluated 204 interventions, three of them included in the enhanced conditionality pack, one in the eco-schemes pack and the remaining 200 in the rural development packs. The proportions of farmland bird requirements considered by the conditionality and eco-schemes were 60% and 50%, respectively. The proportion of requirements considered by rural development interventions averaged 17% when proportions reached by interventions developed for each agrosystem and Autonomous Region were combined. Combined ex ante evaluations of the three elements of the Green Architecture thus ranged between 31% and 42% among Autonomous Regions. We conclude that the Spanish PEPAC falls short of the ambition to achieve effective halting of farmland bird declines. Furthermore, interventions included within the three elements of the CAP's Green Architecture and among governance levels (central and regional governments) were not integrated to reach the minimum 10% threshold of uncultivated habitats established by current knowledge, thus hampering the general goal of supporting agricultural landscapes complex enough to ensure farmland bird conservation.-P & eacute;rez Pozuelo, P., Concepci & oacute;n, E.D., Azc & aacute;rate, F.M., Bota, G., Brotons, Ll., Garcia, D., Giralt, D., L & oacute;pez-Bao, J.V., Ma & ntilde;osa, S., Morales, M.B., Navarro, A., Olea, P.P., Peco, B., Rey, P.J., Seoane, J., Su & aacute;rez-Seoane, S., Sch & ouml;b, C., Tarjuelo, R., Traba, J., Valera, F. & Diaz, M. (2025). Ex ante evaluation of a multi-level governance CAP strategic plan for farmland bird conservation.

Pesticide use and habitat loss are major anthropogenic drivers of bee decline, raising global concerns about impaired crop pollination. However, the relative importance of these stressors and their combined impact on bee assemblages comprising species with different traits, such as body size or nesting strategy, remains unknown. Here we addressed these key knowledge gaps in a global quantitative synthesis analysing bee assemblage data from 681 crop fields across three continents. We found that both local pesticide hazards and decreasing proportions of semi-natural habitats in surrounding landscapes negatively affected wild bee abundance and species richness in crop fields, while pesticides additionally reduced functional and phylogenetic diversity. Semi-natural habitat availability did not buffer against these negative pesticide effects, nor did we identify any specific traits rending bees more vulnerable to one of the two drivers. Our findings highlight the pressing need to reduce non-target effects of pesticide use and emphasize that conservation and restoration of semi-natural habitats successfully promote wild bees, but are insufficient strategies to mitigate pesticide-driven losses of wild bee pollinators from crop fields.

This paper proposes a novel system for measuring the deformation of anodes automatically in an electrolytic process, eliminating the need for manual intervention. The system employs cameras to acquire lateral perspective images of the anodes. These images are processed using a computer vision algorithm to give measurements of anode deformation, while considering potential errors arising from scene and object geometry. The system’s results align with measurements conducted by operators across 71 anodes and were validated over 3900 more anodes in four different locations under different lightning and environmental conditions. This system improves efficiency, by automating a task that was previously carried out manually, and also safety by eliminating the operators need of handling heavy loads and operating in hazardous environments.

Farmland ecosystem services frequently result from different ecological functions simultaneous provided by specific biodiversity groups such as birds. These bundles of ecosystem services may be approached from inter-specific interaction networks, which inform about the structure of interactions while identifying the species more relevant for combining ecosystem services. Here, we studied how birds provide pest control in apple orchards, and seed dispersal in orchard-adjacent hedgerows and forests. For this, we used field data and DNA-metabarcoding of bird fecal samples, obtained across a whole year from three orchards in northern Spain, to build interaction networks between birds and arthropod apple pests, and between birds and non-crop fleshy-fruited plants. We addressed the structure of the different networks underpinning pest control and seed dispersal. We also combined both ecosystem services through a hybrid network to assess, by means of centrality measures, the topological roles of individual bird species and their ecological determinants. Interaction networks differed in structure, with pest-control network showing higher modularity and specialization than seed-dispersal network, otherwise characterized by high nestedness. These differences emerged from the different typologies, i.e. antagonistic vs. mutualistic, of the bird-pest and bird-plant interactions. The hybrid network integrating pest control and seed dispersal evidenced strong variability across birds in their role to connect ecosystem services, depending on their central or peripheral positions. Bird centrality was positively related with species abundance and independent of body size or diet diversity. This finding suggests the relevance of neutral processes (i.e. the random encounters of organisms) for driving inter-specific interactions, and it highlights the relevance of common birds for sustaining ecosystem service bundles in agroecosystems. The preservation of fruit-rich hedgerows and forest patches around apple orchards is an action recommended to maintain the populations of common bird species, responsible of both agricultural pest control and the natural regeneration of these habitats.

Insectivorous birds provide an essential ecosystem service in agriculture by controlling pest arthropods, but they can also lead to ecosystem disservices when feeding on natural enemies of crop pests. Therefore, depending on the trophic position of birds (whether they mostly prey on mesopredatory or phytophagous arthropods) these disservices may override pest control services. In this study, we used prey DNA-metabarcoding techniques to address the species-level trade-offs of ecosystem services and disservices related with the diet of insectivorous birds in apple orchards of N Spain. We examined whether the trophic position of bird species can be inferred from functional traits related to their foraging and movement behaviour and from the degree of insectivory in their diets. Then, we tested whether bird abundance and trophic position influenced their agronomic quality as service providers, estimated from the proportion in the diet of apple pests relative to their natural enemies. Finally, we combined bird abundance, insectivory and agronomic quality to infer the potential contribution of each bird species to the pest control service. Bird trophic position was positively related to the degree of insectivory, with this effect being modulated by traits related to body size. The trophic position of birds was found to be an inverse indicator of their agronomic quality. Those species with a higher trophic position incorporated few apple pests into their diets relative to their natural enemies. Agronomic quality, nevertheless, had a minor impact on the differential contribution of bird species to the whole assemblage effect, which mostly depended on bird abundance. Overall, our results evidence that the potential of insectivorous birds to control pests can be approached from their trophic position. Yet, in agroecosystems with uneven abundance distributions, the potential contribution of bird species to provide pest-control services may be driven by their quantitative contribution rather than by their per capita, qualitative effects. Strong biases in bird potential contribution to the pest control service finally suggest a redundant role for many rare insectivorous birds.

Low latency in the detection of objects in images is a fundamental aspect to provide an immediate response in different application scenarios, and to carry out the relevant actions. Deep learning-based models offer better results than traditional object detection techniques. As a result of this increased accuracy, the computational cost of these models is often very high. For this reason, several edge computing devices have emerged that perform inference quickly and efficiently due to the incorporation of hardware accelerators. In this work, different devices are evaluated using object detection algorithms based on deep learning. For this purpose, YOLOv3, YOLOv5 and YOLOX, with all their variants, have been used on an NVIDIA Jetson Nano, an NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier and a Google Coral Dev Board. For the evaluation of the models and devices, one of the most widespread datasets, MS COCO, is used. In addition, they have been evaluated using twenty different input sizes and three frameworks (Pytorch, TensorRT and Tensorflow Lite). From the data obtained, data can be extrapolated to other models such as YOLOv8. Additionally, the FPS/Power Consumption and FPS/Cost ratios are analyzed, as well as their feasibility in a real use scenario. As a result of this work, valuable recommendations are provided for projects where this technology is to be applied.

Insects contribute considerably to global crop pollination, with pollination deficits being documented for multiple entomophilous or pollinator-dependent crops. Different cultivars of crops are being cultivated within and across production regions, so it is essential to understand the cultivar variability of pollination deficits. Here, we used a dataset from 286 sites from multiple production regions to develop a synthesis on pollination deficits in two widely cultivated highbush blueberry cultivars, ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Duke’. Additionally, we determined if bee visitation or bee richness reduces pollination deficits in these cultivars. On average, neither cultivar showed pollination deficits regarding fruit set. However, for ‘Bluecrop’ we found pollination deficits for berry weight and seed set, which was not the case for ‘Duke’. Increasing total bee visitation reduced pollination deficits of both berry weight and seed set for ‘Bluecrop’. More specifically, a non-linear, negative exponential model best predicted this relation between bee visitation and pollination deficits. Our results highlight that pollination deficits and responses to pollinator visitation are variable between different cultivars of a single crop, which suggests opportunities to use certain cultivars that are less dependent on insect-mediated pollination in landscapes and regions where pollination services have been compromised. In addition, the non-linear response between bee visitation and pollination deficits suggests that optimal bee visitation rates need to be determined to improve pollination management and crop yield and to support accurate economic valuations of pollination services.

Quality control and defect detection are major challenges in industrial environments. The localization of these defects is of crucial importance, as they can affect the performance of manufactured products and even the safety of people. Defect detection methods based on visual sensors and image processing are nowadays the most common approaches. To detect subsurface defects it is common to combine active thermography and deep learning. In this paper, PCT (Principal Components Thermography) is employed to enhance the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio), leading to a significant improvement in the results. Recent developments in this field apply deep learning models for semantic segmentation and object detection. However, the quality of the predictions is not enough to ensure that all quality controls are met. In this paper, a combination of semantic segmentation and object detection is proposed to increase the reliability of predictions. To carry out this combination, a working methodology and two new ensembling strategies are proposed. After comparing the results of the proposed combination with the results of using only semantic segmentation methods in a real industrial scenario, where carbon fiber sheets are used, it is found that the proposal improves the segmentation metrics by a 5% to a 24%. Thus the reliability of the predictions is improved.

Manufacturing industry often uses 3D scanning technologies to inspect their products. Some of these techniques produce a point cloud that represent a section of the manufactured product. The clouds must be aligned to the model of the product in order to check its quality. Current registration methods are usually affected by dimensional problems or volumetric anomalies. This paper proposes a new method for the registration process aligning the cloud to the model in several steps. The first step is the state-of-the-art method. The second step uses the information acquired in the first one to perform a fine registration in order to not being affected by dimensional defects or little miss alignments in the previous step providing a huge improvement in the measurement of surface defects. In this paper, several techniques are proposed in order to provide a set of tools that the final users can tune to fit their needs. The whole procedure of registration can be run in real-time conditions using the sampling and caching strategies proposed. The methods proposed are tested over more than 10,000 profiles of a rail proving they successfully align the cloud and the model providing better results in the measurement of surface defects.

The diversity of traits within animal assemblages has been shown to affect the magnitude of animal-provided ecological functions. However, little is known about how consistent trait diversity effects are across ecological functions and ecosystems. More importantly, the importance of trait diversity in driving ecosystem functioning, relative to other components of biodiversity, has rarely been assessed. It also remains unclear how environmental gradients filter trait diversity and, ultimately, modulate ecological functions. Here, we test how different biodiversity components (i.e., trait diversity, phylogenetic diversity and abundance) affect the magnitude of avian seed dispersal and insect predation along large environmental gradients. We sampled frugivorous and insectivorous birds and their ecological functions across gradients of forest cover and fruit and insect abundances in woodland pastures and apple orchards in Northern Spain. We measured 6 morphological traits and compiled phylogenetic information on 43 bird species. We used Structural Equation Models to disentangle the effects of environmental gradients and biodiversity components on ecological functions. We found that different avian functions in the same agroecosystem were controlled by different biodiversity components. While seed dispersal was positively driven by bird abundance in woodland pastures, insect predation responded positively to trait and phylogenetic diversity. The positive effects of trait diversity on insect predation were, on the other hand, consistent across woodland pastures and apple orchards. Our results also pinpointed forest cover and resource availability as filters of the different components of avian diversity, suggesting that environmental gradients condition the effects of biodiversity on avian ecological functions. Our findings reveal variable effects of trait diversity on two different avian ecological functions, but consistent effects on the same function across agroecosystems. Consolidating the generalities of trait diversity effects will require further multi-function studies, as well as a unifying framework for animal-driven functions that integrates the causal links between environmental gradients, the different biodiversity components, and ecological functions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Seed dispersal by frugivores is a fundamental function for plant community dynamics in fragmented landscapes, where forest remnants are typically embedded in a matrix of anthropogenic habitats. Frugivores can mediate both connectivity among forest remnants and plant colonization of the matrix. However, it remains poorly understood how frugivore communities change from forest to matrix due to the loss or replacement of species with traits that are less advantageous in open habitats and whether such changes ultimately influence the composition and traits of dispersed plants via species interactions. Here, we close this gap by using a unique dataset of seed-dispersal networks that were sampled in forest patches and adjacent matrix habitats of seven fragmented landscapes across Europe. We found a similar diversity of frugivores, plants, and interactions contributing to seed dispersal in forest and matrix, but a high turnover (replacement) in all these components. The turnover of dispersed seeds was smaller than that of frugivore communities because different frugivore species provided complementary seed dispersal in forest and matrix. Importantly, the turnover involved functional changes toward larger and more mobile frugivores in the matrix, which dispersed taller, larger-seeded plants with later fruiting periods. Our study provides a trait-based understanding of frugivore-mediated seed dispersal through fragmented landscapes, uncovering nonrandom shifts that can have cascading consequences for the composition of regenerating plant communities. Our findings also highlight the importance of forest remnants and frugivore faunas for ecosystem resilience, demonstrating a high potential for passive forest restoration of unmanaged lands in the matrix.

La renaturalización pasiva, o recuperación de los ecosistemas tras el abandono del uso humano del territorio, representa una oportunidad para restaurar biodiversidad y servicios ecosistémicos en un contexto de crisis ambiental global. No obstante, también puede provocar declive de determinadas especies, cambios en los regímenes de perturbación o pérdidas de valores culturales. Esta revisión integra el conocimiento actual sobre patrones y procesos ecológicos de renaturalización pasiva en la Cordillera Cantábrica (NO España) para generar una primera base de evidencia sobre la que apoyar la gestión ambiental. Se observa un patrón de recuperación de bosques y matorrales en áreas anteriormente ocupadas por pastizales ganaderos y campos agrícolas, que implica cambios en la estructura del paisaje, la riqueza y la composición de las comunidades ecológicas, la acumulación de carbono en biomasa y suelos, y la provisión de diferentes servicios ecosistémicos. Los procesos que modulan la renaturalización son: 1) la dispersión de organismos, que condiciona la sucesión ecológica y la persistencia de especies a escala regional; 2) las dinámicas tróficas, cuyo funcionamiento depende de la presencia de grandes depredadores apicales y de la estructura del paisaje; y 3) los regímenes de perturbaciones ecológicas, actualmente dominados por la ganadería y los incendios antropogénicos. Por sus efectos ecológicos, la renaturalización pasiva representa una estrategia efectiva de restauración de ecosistemas y sus funciones clave en la Cordillera Cantábrica. Su aceptación social dependerá de la compatibilización de este proceso con el uso ganadero y ecoturístico del territorio, así como de la eficacia de las políticas conservacionistas, agrarias y forestales.