The main objective of the project is to carry out a study on the impact and interactions of climate with the ecology, behaviour and distribution of mountain birds in the Los Picos de Europa National Park.

The main objective of the project is to carry out a study on the impact and interactions of climate with the ecology, behaviour and distribution of mountain birds in the Los Picos de Europa National Park.

The study hopes to demonstrate the vulnerability of mountain ecosystems and the risks of biodiversity loss, especially in the birds under study, to the pressure of climate change, as well as to improve future predictions through knowledge of real climate-controlled ecological processes.

More specifically, it is intended to:

• To study the impact and interactions of climate with the Red-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) and the Yellow-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus), among other mountain birds.
• To analyse the nature of birds’ dependence on climate and their ecological responses to climate variations. All this thanks to the information from the 8 weather stations installed in the Picos de Europa National Park.
• Analyze habitat structure, availability of trophic resources, physical condition, spatial ecology, levels of intraspecific and interspecific competition.
• Predict temporal trends through the study of spatial variation along vertical climate gradients, thanks to the location of the stations in an altitudinal gradient.