Impacts of land use on bird communities in the Western Himalaya: Insights from a two-decade-long monitoring program

Land use change has altered biodiversity globally, but impacts on high-elevation rangelands remain poorly understood, especially long term. We monitored birds for 20+ years (2002-2023) in Spiti Valley across four habitats along a land use gradient (crop fields, grazed meadows, grazed steppe, ungrazed steppe). Land use shaped communities dramatically - crop fields had highest densities but mainly generalists, while ungrazed steppe harboured specialists and high densities. Heavily grazed rangelands showed lowest densities and richness. Surprisingly, densities in the least disturbed ungrazed steppe declined most over time, likely due to climate change. Holistic management-continuing traditional organic farming and maintaining ungrazed patches-could help sustain biodiversity in Trans-Himalaya.