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306 results for “bird communities”
Data from: Highly diversified crop-livestock farming systems reshape wild bird communities
<p>Agricultural intensification is a leading threat to bird conservation. Highly diversified farming systems that integrate livestock and crop production might promote a diversity of habitats useful to native birds foraging across otherwise-simplified landscapes. At the same time, these features might be attractive to non-native birds linked to a broad range of disservices to both crop and livestock production. We evaluated the influence of crop-livestock integration on wild bird richness and density along a north-south transect spanning the U.S. west coast. We surveyed birds on 52 farms that grew primarily mixed vegetables and fruits alone or integrated livestock into production. Crop-livestock systems harbored higher native bird density and richness relative to crop only farms, a benefit more pronounced on farms embedded in non-natural landscapes. Crop-livestock systems bolstered native insectivores linked to the suppression of agricultural pest insects but did not bolster native granivores that may be more likely to damage crops. Crop-livestock systems also significantly increased the density of non-native birds, primarily European starlings (<i>Sturnus vulgaris</i>) and house sparrows (<i>Passer domesticus</i>) that may compete with native birds for resources. Models supported a small, positive correlation between non-native density and overall native bird density as well as between non-native density and native granivore density.<a name="_Hlk19446924">Relative to crop-only farms, on average crop-livestock systems exhibited 1.5 times higher patch richness, 2.4 times higher density of farm structures, 7.3 times smaller field sizes, 2.4 times greater integration of woody crops, and 5.3 times greater integration of pasture/hay habitat on farm.</a> Wild birds may have responded to this habitat diversity and/or associated food resources. Individual farm factors had significantly lower predictive power than farming system alone (ΔCIC = 80.2), suggesting crop-livestock systems may impact wild birds through a suite of factors that change with system conversion. Collectively, our findings suggest that farms that integrate livestock and crop production can attract robust native bird communities, especially within landscapes devoted to intensified food production. However, additional work is needed to demonstrate persistent farm bird communities through time, eco-physiological benefits to birds foraging on these farms, and net effects of both native and non-native wild birds in agroecosystems. </p>
River dams and the stability of bird communities: A hierarchical Bayesian analysis in a tropical hydroelectric power plant
<ol> <li>The effects of anthropogenic disturbance upon the stability of wildlife communities depend on the heterogeneity and connectivity of habitat remnants on multiple scales. The number of hydroelectric dams in biodiversity hotspots (Africa, South America and Asia) is growing rapidly. To establish their environmental impact, it is essential to understand the dynamics of wildlife communities before and following the establishment of dams.</li> <li>We evaluated the impacts of the filling of the Serra do Facão hydroelectric reservoir in the São Marcos river, central Brazil, upon the bird community. Using data from 1,145 surveys across 20 sampling sites over eight years, two years before and six years after the filling of the reservoir, we assessed the resistance, i.e., maintenance close to an equilibrium state during the disturbance, and resilience, i.e., ability to return to the original state following the disturbance, of the bird community. We used spatiotemporal hierarchical Bayesian models to assess the effects of reservoir filling on five community parameters: abundance, richness, phylogenetic diversity, functional diversity and species composition.</li> <li>In the period subsequent to reservoir filling, there was (i) a marked reduction in bird abundance, richness, phylogenetic diversity and functional diversity, and (ii) a reduction in the proportion of forest species, coupled with an increase in the proportion of savanna species. Except for bird abundance, none of the other community attributes returned to their original levels, even after six years. Our findings indicate that Cerrado bird communities have both low resistance and low resilience to habitat loss associated with the establishment of hydroelectric reservoirs.</li> <li> <i>Synthesis and applications.</i> The environmental costs of hydroelectric dams are still underestimated or neglected in Brazil. A new paradigm in the assessment of their environmental impacts is warranted, incorporating (i) models of spatiotemporal variations based on long-term monitoring with surveys initiated before disturbances and (ii) measures of functional and phylogenetic diversity, such that society can understand the costs and benefits of the establishment of new hydroelectric dams and make informed decisions. Biodiversity loss could be minimized by ensuring the preservation and connectivity of alluvial habitats, capable of maintaining the supply of resources and the functional and phylogenetic attributes of bird communities associated with such habitats.</li> </ol>
Community and species-specific responses of coastal birds to COVID-19 "anthropause" in the largest hypersaline lagoon of South America
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
The comparative effects of landscape-level forest fragmentation, forest area and local habitat measures on Connecticut bird communities
<p>I studied how breeding and wintering forest bird communities across Connecticut responded to variation in habitat characteristics and particularly such landscape attributes as forest fragmentation. I surveyed birds at 1,815 points along 121 transects that traversed ca. 400 km of forest. I also made 12705 habitat measurements at survey points and computed areas of forest, non-forest, core forest and perimeter/area ratios of forest for 31,550 ha of study area. I computed sampled species richness and community density as well as individual species' population densities for each transect. Moreover, I classified species encountered as to their nest site selection, macrohabitat use, microhabitat use, migratory strategy and trophic affiliation. Based on observations of 36,702 summering individuals of 123 species and 13,742 wintering individuals of 63 species, declines in community density occurred with increasing fragmentation although species richness was often more closely associated with habitat measures. Among landscape measures, forest fragmentation had the closest association with summer community measures 67% of the time, strongly suggesting that fragmentation effects were the predominant driver of such community patterns. However, short-distance migrant density and richness, foraging generalist density and richness, edge/successional species density and richness, habitat generalist density, and Brown-headed Cowbird density showed little relationship to landscape measures. The effects of fragmentation appeared to predominate over those of simply forest extent in predicting summer and winter bird community characteristics even in the comparatively extensive forests of southern New England. Despite the importance of fragmentation effects, community and individual species measures often tended to be more closely associated with habitat measures than with those of fragmentation. In addition, few summer or winter community measures or species patterns showed any significant relationship to natural forest breaks. Winter community and species density patterns showed little relationship to any landscape measures, with particularly elevation appearing to be a principal driver of winter patterns.</p>
Partitioning beta diversity to untangle mechanisms underlying the assembly of bird communities in Mediterranean olive groves
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i>Aim</i>: We investigated taxonomic and functional beta diversity of bird communities inhabiting Mediterranean olive groves subject to either intensive or extensive management of the ground cover and located in landscapes with different degrees of complexity.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i>Location</i>: Andalusia, southern Spain.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i>Methods</i>: We partitioned taxonomic and functional beta diversity into its two additive components, turnover and nestedness. We also explored the contributions of single sites to overall beta diversity (LCBD) and separated the effects of species replacement (turnover) and richness difference (nestedness) in order to identify ecologically unique sites -keystone communities- within the metacommunity. In a further step, we employed abundance- and functional-based indicator species analyses to characterize bird assemblages. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i>Results</i>: Taxonomic beta diversity increased with landscape complexity. Although both taxonomic and functional differences among assemblages were driven mainly by species replacement (regardless of management or landscape type), the contribution of trait replacement to the total functional beta diversity was much lower, suggesting that species performing similar functions replace each other between sites. There were no differences in LCBD between management types or categories of landscape complexity, but the contributions of sites to beta diversity decreased as the percentage cover of olive groves increased. Species richness was also important in explaining variation in LCBD as species-poor sites tended to contribute the most to the local-to-regional beta diversity. However, some farms displayed high values of LCBD due to the existence of a high replacement component, indicating that some species recorded in these sites were scarce elsewhere. The indicator species analyses revealed that the woodchat shrike <i>Lanius senator</i> may constitute an excellent indicator of biodiversity in this agro-forestry-system. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><i>Main conclusions</i>: Our results show that agricultural expansion promotes biotic homogenization and exemplify how the identification of both keystone species and communities can represent a powerful tool for the management of anthropized landscapes.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
Complex landscapes stabilize farm bird communities and their expected ecosystem services
<p>1. Birds play many roles within agroecosystems including as consumers of crops and pests, carriers of pathogens, and beloved icons. Birds are also rapidly declining across North America, in part due to agricultural intensification. Thus, it is imperative to identify how to manage agroecosystems to best support birds for multi-functional outcomes (e.g., crop production and conservation). Both the average amounts of services/disservices provided and their temporal stability are important for effective farm planning.</p> <p>2. Here, we conducted point-count surveys for four years across 106 locations on 27 diversified farms in Washington and Oregon, USA. We classified birds as ecosystem service or disservice providers using indices spanning supporting, regulating, provisioning, and cultural services/disservices. We then examined service/disservice index pairwise correlations and assessed the relative importance of local, farm, and landscape complexity on the average and temporal stability of avian service/disservice provider indices.</p> <p>3. Generally, service provider indices (production benefitting birds, grower appreciation, and conservation scores) were positively correlated with each other. Foodborne pathogen risk, grower disapproval, and identity/iconic value indices were also positively correlated with each other. However, the crop damaging bird index generally had low correlations with other indices.</p> <p>4. Farms that implemented more conservation-friendly management practices generally had higher average service provider indices, but farm management did not impact disservice provider indices, except for grower disapproval. Average disservice provider indices were lower on farms in complex landscapes.</p> <p>5. Local vertical vegetation complexity tended to increase the temporal stability of service provider indices but did not affect the disservice provider indices. Greater landscape complexity was generally associated with increased temporal stability of service and disservice provider indices. Increased landscape complexity may stabilize bird communities by increasing bird community evenness, which in turn, positively predicted temporal stability of all service/disservice provider indices.</p> <p>6. <i>Policy implications</i>: Our results suggest that farmers can effectively manage their farms to harness ecosystem services from birds through farm diversification. Disservices provided by birds, however, appear to be most negatively impacted by landscape-level complexity. Thus, greater incentives for farmers to increase seminatural cover at the landscape-scale are likely necessary to achieve multifunctional outcomes for conservation and agriculture.</p>
Data from: Dominance and competition drive assemblage configuration in an Iberian steppe bird community
<p>Open scripts and data bases for Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences ( Barrero et al., Dominance and competition drive assemblage configuration in an Iberian steppe bird community).</p> <p>Four documents are provided: The two R Scripts needed to create and fix the models and two .xls files with the data described below.</p> <p>Scripts: a) HMSC_2022_FullModel_Run_GitHub.Rmd: script to run the full model. b) HMSC_2022_NullModel_Run_GitHub.Rmd: script to run the null model.</p> <p>Xlsx: a) Grid.xlsx: Coordinates of the species surveyed. b) Data2.xlsx: Habitat descriptor variables</p>
Bird predation and landscape context shape arthropod communities on broccoli
<p>Birds increase crop yields via consumption of pests in some contexts but disrupt pest control via intraguild predation in others. Landscape complexity acts as an inconsistent mediator, sometimes increasing, decreasing, or not impacting pest control. Here, we examined how landscape context and seasonal variation mediate the impact of birds on arthropod pests and natural enemies, leaf damage, and yields of broccoli (<em>Brassica oleracea</em>) on highly diversified farms that spanned the USA West Coast. Our study had two complementary components: a bird exclusion experiment and molecular diet analysis of 357 fecal samples collected from the most commonly captured bird species that also foraged in Brassica fields (American Goldfinch, <em>Spinus tristis</em>; American Robin, <em>Turdus migratorius</em>; Savannah Sparrow, <em>Passerculus sandwichensis</em>; Song Sparrow, <em>Melospiza</em> <em>melodia</em>; and White-crowned Sparrow, <em>Zonotrichia leucophrys</em>).</p> <p>Bird access yielded higher, rather than lower, numbers of pest aphids and increased their parasitism, while no other arthropods examined were consistently impacted. Independent of bird presence, percent natural cover in the landscape sometimes increased and sometimes decreased densities of arthropods in the mid-growth period, with diminishing impacts in the late-growth period. Herbivore feeding damage to broccoli leaves decreased with increasing amounts of natural land cover and in the late-growth period. Molecular diet analysis revealed that Brassica pests and predatory arthropods were relatively uncommon prey for birds. Landscape context did not alter the prey items found in bird diets. Altogether, our bird-exclusion experiment and molecular diet analysis suggested that birds have relatively modest impacts on the arthropods associated with broccoli plantings. More broadly, the limited support in our study for net natural pest control services suggests that financial incentives may be required to encourage the adoption of bird friendly farming practices in certain cropping systems.</p>
A habitat-based approach to determining the effects of drought on aridland bird communities
<p>Aridland breeding bird communities of the United States are among the most vulnerable to drought, with many species showing significant population declines associated with decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature. Individual breeding bird species have varied responses to drought which suggests complex responses to changes in water availability. Here, we evaluated the influence of water deficit, an integrative metric of drought stress, on breeding bird communities within three distinct aridland habitat types: riparian, pinyon-juniper, and sagebrush shrubland. We used 12 years of breeding bird survey data from 11 National Parks and Monuments in the Northern Colorado Plateau Inventory and Monitoring Network (NCPN). We used a multivariate community level approach to test for the effect of annual water deficit on the bird communities in the three habitats. We found that bird communities responded to water deficit in all three habitat types, and 70% of the 30 species-habitat combinations show significant relationships between density and variation in water deficit. Our analyses revealed that the direction and magnitude of species responses to water deficit was habitat dependent. The habitat specific responses we observed suggest that the adaptive capacity of some species depends on the habitat in which they occur, a pattern only elucidated with our habitat-based approach. The direction and magnitude of the relationships between predicted densities and annual water deficit can be used to predict the relative sensitivity of species within habitat climate changes. These results provide the first attempt to determine how the indirect effect of changes in water availability might affect aridland breeding birds in distinct habitat types. Linking breeding bird density to annual water deficit may be valuable for predicting changes in species persistence and distribution in response to climate change.</p>
Fig. 1 in Effect Of Farming And Rainfall On The Species Diversity, Population Density And Community Structure Of Birds Breeding In The Kalahari Woodland, Ne Namibia
Fig. 1. The location of the transect (indicated with red arrow).
Fig. 2 in Effect Of Farming And Rainfall On The Species Diversity, Population Density And Community Structure Of Birds Breeding In The Kalahari Woodland, Ne Namibia
Fig. 2. Monthly rainfall in Katima Mulilo in 2014 and 2015.
Fig. 4 in Effect Of Farming And Rainfall On The Species Diversity, Population Density And Community Structure Of Birds Breeding In The Kalahari Woodland, Ne Namibia
Fig. 4. Percentage of main nesting guilds in 2014 and 2015.
Fig. 3 in Population Densities And Community Structure Of Birds Breeding In A Suburban Wooded Grassland In The Highveld Of Lesotho
Fig. 3. Comparison of main feeding (A) and nesting (B) guilds in avian community in 1998 and 2001.
Fig. 5 in Spatial Patterns Of Bird Communities Of The Lower Dnieper Sands During The Breeding Season: Differentiation Factors
Fig. 5. The bird abundance ratio in the separate groups of samples.
Data on bird communities and vegetation in relation to altitude and habitat alteration in the Kalakad - Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India
<p>The dataset contains data on bird communities and habitat collected between 1997 and 1999 from Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India, related to the following two publications:</p> <ol> <li>Raman, T. R. S., Joshi, N. V. & Sukumar, R. 2005. Tropical rainforest bird community structure in relation to altitude, tree species composition, and null models in the Western Ghats, India. <em>Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society</em> 102: 145-157. <a href="https://archive.org/details/journalofbomb10222005bomb/page/145/mode/2up">https://archive.org/details/journalofbomb10222005bomb/page/145/mode/2up</a> </li> <li>Raman, T. R. S. & Sukumar, R. 2002. Responses of tropical rainforest birds to abandoned plantations, edges, and logged forest in the Western Ghats, India. Animal Conservation 5: 201-216. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1367943002002251">http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1367943002002251 </a> </li> </ol> <p>GEOGRAPHICAL AREA: Kalakad-Mundathurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR), 895 km² sanctuary located between 8°25′ to 8°53′ N and 77°10′ to 77°35′ E in Tamil Nadu state in the Western Ghats mountain range of India.</p> <p>TAXONOMIC SCOPE: Birds, trees</p> <p><strong>Supplementary information</strong></p> <p>The Appendix of Raman and Sukumar (2002) is included in the dataset as an open document format word (ODT) file.</p> <p>Three Tables from Raman et al. (2005) are included in the dataset as an open document format worksheet (ODS) file.</p>
Quantifying the impacts of 166 years of land cover change on lowland bird communities
<p><span>Land cover change for agriculture is thought to be a major threat to global biodiversity</span><span>. </span><span>However, </span><span>its ecological impact </span><span>has rarely been quantified in the Northern Hemisphere, as broad-scale conversion to farmland mainly occurred until the 1400s-1700s in the region, limiting the availability of sufficient data.</span><span> </span><span>The Ishikari Lowland in Hokkaido, Japan offers an excellent opportunity to address this issue, as hunter–gatherer lifestyles dominated in this region until the mid-19th century and land cover maps are available for the period of land cover changes, i.e., 1850-2016.</span> <span>Using these maps and a hierarchical community model of relationships between breeding bird abundance and land cover types, we estimated that broad-scale land cover change over a 166 year period was associated with more than 70% decline in both potential species-richness and abundance of avian communities.</span> <span>We estimated that the abundance of wetland and forest species declined by >88%, whereas that of bare-ground species increased by >50%. Our results suggest that broad-scale land cover change for agriculture has led to drastic reductions in wetland and forest species and promoted changes in community composition in large parts of the Northern Hemisphere. This study provides potential baseline information that could inform future conservation policies.</span></p>
Community science data provides evidence for upward elevational range shifts by Eastern Himalayan birds
<p>The ongoing climate crisis is a significant threat to global biodiversity. As Earth warms, many species respond by shifting their geographical ranges either polewards, or in mountainous regions, upslope towards higher elevations, presumably to track suitable thermal environments. Upslope range shifts are of particular concern in tropical mountain ranges because: (a) tropical species are particularly thermally sensitive, (b) species moving upwards could become locally extirpated as they run out of habitable space, and (c) tropical mountains harbor a high fraction of Earth's terrestrial biodiversity. Rapid upslope shifts can therefore result in significant biodiversity losses. We used community science data over a 13-year period to evaluate whether 93 Eastern Himalayan bird species might be shifting to higher elevations. To do this, we analyzed changes in their occurrence probabilities in eBird checklists from birdwatching hotspots at fixed elevations. We found patterns consistent with upslope range shifts; species with elevational ranges primarily below hotspot elevations show increases in their occurrence probability over time, and those with most of their elevational ranges above a hotspot elevation decline in occurrence probability. Our findings are suggestive of rapid responses to climate change by Eastern Himalayan birds. We caution that Eastern Himalayan bird species might be at special risk from increasing global temperatures because of heightened thermal sensitivity coupled with high rates of warming in the region. To remain resilient in the face of climate change, Eastern Himalayan birds likely require undisturbed habitats spanning entire elevational gradients, to track rising temperatures by moving to higher elevations.</p>
Dataset on foraging ecology of shrubland bird community
<p>Habitat loss due to increasing anthropogenic disturbance is the major driver for bird population declines across the globe. Within the Eastern Ghats of India, shrubland bird communities are threatened by shrinking of suitable habitats due to increased anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. Development of an effective habitat management strategy is hampered by the absence of data for this bird community. To address this knowledge gap, we examined foraging sites for 14 shrubland bird species, including three declining species, in three study areas representing the shrubland type of forest community in the Eastern Ghats. We recorded microhabitat features within an 11 m radius of observed foraging points and compared these data with similar data from random plots. We used chi-square to test the association between plant species and bird species for sites where they were observed foraging. We observed significant differences between foraging sites of all the study species and random plots, thus indicating selection for foraging habitat. Using linear discriminant analysis, we found that the microhabitat features important for the bird species were shrub density, vegetational height, vertical foliage stratification, grass height, and percent rock cover. Our results show that diet guild and foraging strata influence the foraging microhabitat selection of a species (e.g., ground-foraging species differed significantly from other species). Except for two species, all focal birds were associated with at least one plant species. The plant-bird association was based on foraging, structural, or behavioral preferences. Several key factors affecting foraging habitat such as shrub density can be actively managed at the local scale. Strategic and selective harvesting of forest products and a spatially and temporally controlled livestock grazing regime may allow regeneration of scrubland and create conditions favorable to birds.</p>
Trait shifts in bird communities from primary forest to human settlements in Mexican seasonal forests: Are there ruderal birds?
<p><span><span><span><span>Agriculture, cattle grazing, and human settlements negatively affect bird biodiversity, driving the loss of ecologically specialized species and favoring the dominance of generalists. Because ecological pressures define organisms' success by acting on their intrinsic traits, biodiversity loss due to anthropization might cause directional trait shifts. Here, we use a trait-based approach to find empirical evidence of trait-shifts in bird communities across an anthropization gradient in seasonal forests in central Mexico. We performed point-count bird surveys within a region of tropical deciduous and seasonal oak forests considering three degrees of anthropization: primary forest, secondary growth, and human settlements. A multivariate analysis (PCA) showed similar trait-covariation patterns for both forest types; in the anthropized habitat the bird communities exhibited shorter life-cycles, higher fecundity, and broader ecological niches (diet, foraging habitat, and nesting resources) than those in the primary forests. Our finding of directional trait shifts resembles Evolutionary Ecological Strategies Theory (EES) predictions for successful organisms within highly disturbed anthropized habitats, which are known as a "ruderal adaptative strategy" in the EES framework. The use of trait-based approaches could improve ecological generalizations in bird communities, leading to a better understanding of avian biodiversity's responses to anthropization.</span></span></span></span></p>
Survey of winter bird communities and vegetation in the Oregon Coast Range
<p>We re-surveyed forest bird communities during winter in seven large plots originally surveyed by graduate student, Stanley Anderson, from 1968 through 1970, near Corvallis, Oregon, USA. The forests in plots in the Coast Range Mountain foothills were and are currently dominated by Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Anderson's thesis included plot locations, summaries of vegetation characteristics and point estimates of bird densities for each plot. Because of the lack of similar data, we re-surveyed his plots after aligning methods with his and added modern components (distance and time interval sampling) to facilitate comparisons of changes in abundances. We preserved more extensive metadata than were preserved from Anderson's surveys, including georeferenced point count survey locations to facilitate more precisely repeatable future re-surveys. We also measured vegetation characteristics to compare structural changes since Anderson's measurements.</p>
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