Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Indicators journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind Original Articles Spatial associations among avian diversity, regulating and provisioning ecosystem services in Italy Yanina Benedetti a, ⁎ , Federico Morelli a , Michele Munafò b , Francesca Assennato b , Andrea Strollo b , Riccardo Santolini c a Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Spatial Planning, Kamýcká 129, CZ-165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic b Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), Department of Geological Survey of Italy, Via V. Brancati 48, 00144 Rome, Italy c University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Department of Biomolecular Sciences (DISB), Via Saffi 2, 61029 Urbino, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Evolutionary uniqueness Functional diversity Functional evenness Functional dispersion Landscape heterogeneity Phylogenetic diversity ABSTRACT Aim: An in-depth assessment of the spatial distribution of environmental resources and the condition of eco- systems is a key challenge in the management of ecosystems to support the provision of multiple ecosystem services. The main objective of this work was to investigate the spatial covariance of different aspects of avian diversity across gradients of provisioning and regulating ecosystem services in Italy at a high spatial resolution. Location: Entire country of Italy. Methods: Regulating and provisioning ecosystem services proxies were mapped and standardised at a fixed spatial scale across Italy. We assessed taxonomic diversity, community evolutionary distinctiveness, functional evenness, functional dispersion, and phylogenetic species variability as proxies for biodiversity. Finally, mixed models were used to compare the spatial covariance between each ecosystem service and component of bio- diversity. Results: We found different associations between ecosystem services and each biodiversity component. Bird species richness was higher at moderate levels of agricultural production. When the levels of agricultural pro- duction were lower, phylogenetic relatedness index and functional dispersion decreased while evolutionary uniqueness and functional evenness were increased. Moderate levels of potential pollination services were spatially correlated with high values of bird species richness. In addition, taxonomic diversity of birds increased at moderate levels of timber production of deciduous forests, while community evolutionary distinctiveness decreased at lower timber production. Conversely, phylogenetic relatedness, functional dispersion, and func- tional evenness increased at lower levels of timber production. Similar patterns were found for carbon se- questration and bird diversity spatial associations. Finally, functional evenness wasn’t spatially related to any level of potential pollination and carbon sequestration provision. Main conclusions: This work demonstrates that large-scale associations between ecosystem services and biodi- versity vary spatially in Italy. Our findings were achieved at a large spatial scale and high-spatial resolution, providing information about the complex interactions among avian communities and the provision of ecosystem services. 1. Introduction The current loss of biodiversity, amplified by climate change, is one of the most critical global environmental threats, causing irreversible changes, extensive economic losses, and impacts on human well-being (La Notte et al., 2015; Leadley et al., 2014). A strong interest in eco- system assessments has emerged in recent years (Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). In view of that, European Commission (2010) and Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, (2005) affirmed that biodiversity provides different types of essential products and ecosystem services to humans (Anderson et al., 2009), highlighting the interdependence among biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem services (Balvanera et al., 2006). In the last decade, a huge number of studies were focused on eco- system services (e.g. Costanza et al., 1997; De Groot et al., 2010) concluding that in order to guarantee the provision of multiple https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105742 Received 31 July 2019; Received in revised form 11 September 2019; Accepted 14 September 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: ybenedetti73@gmail.com (Y. Benedetti). Ecological Indicators 108 (2020) 105742 1470-160X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T