Riparian habitats are important for the maintenance of regional biodiversity. Many studies have compared bird distributions between riparian and non-riparian habitats but have not established how wide riparian habitats used by birds are, as measured by distance from the nearest stream. We investigated the distribution of understory birds along gradients of distance from streams, soil clay content, and slope in a central Amazonian forest, by mist-netting birds three times in 45 plots. We used nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) to reduce the dimensionality of species quantitative (abundance) and qualitative (presence-absence) composition to one multivariate axis. Estimates of the width of riparian habitats as indicated by understory birds depended on the community attribute considered, measuring 90 m for species quantitative composition and 140 m for species qualitative composition. Species distributions were correlated with clay content but were independent of slope, while distance from streams was positively correlated with clay content but independent of slope. Clay content affects plant species composition, which in turn, may influence bird species composition. However, distribution patterns of birds in relation to distance from streams are consistent among studies carried out in many different temperate and tropical regions, indicating an effect of distance from streams itself. Protection of riparian habitats is one of the most widely used conservation strategies, and Brazilian environmental legislation mandates the protection of a 30 m wide strip of riparian vegetation on either side of small streams. We show that the protected strip should be much wider and recommend strategies to place other forms of land protection contiguous with riparian areas so that Brazilian environmental legislation better fulfills its role of protecting biodiversity associated with riparian habitats.

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The SPARTE study (Strategy for Preventing cardiovascular and renal events based on ARTErial stiffness; URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov ; Unique identifier: NCT02617238) is a multicenter open-label randomized controlled trial with blinded end point evaluation, undertaken at 25 French research centers in university hospitals. Patients with primary hypertension were randomly assigned (1:1) to a therapeutic strategy targeting the normalization of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) measured every 6 months (PWV group, n=264) versus a classical therapeutic strategy only implementing the European Guidelines for Hypertension Treatment (conventional group, n=272). In the PWV group, the therapeutic strategy used preferably a combination of ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker and calcium channel blockers, as well as maximal recommended doses of ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers. The primary outcome was a combined end point including particularly stroke and coronary events. Secondary outcomes included the time-course changes in brachial office blood pressure (BP), ambulatory BP, PWV, and treatments. After a median follow-up of 48.3 months, there was no significant between-group difference in primary outcome (hazard ratio, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.40–1.38], P =0.35). In the PWV group, combinations of renin-angiotensin-system blockers and calcium channel blockers were prescribed at higher dosage ( P =0.028), office and ambulatory systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure decreased more ( P <0.001 and P <0.01, respectively), and PWV increased less ( P =0.0003) than in the conventional group. The SPARTE study lacked sufficient statistical power to demonstrate its primary outcome. However, it demonstrated that a PWV-driven treatment for hypertension enables to further reduce office and ambulatory systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure and prevent vascular aging in patients with hypertension at medium-to-very-high risk, compared with strict application of guidelines.