Effects of Landscape Features on Waterbird Use of Rice Fields

Effect of landscape configuration and habitat quality on the community structure of waterbirds using a man-made habitat

“…As they need to move between both areas, the importance of the landscape configuration for these species may be higher, even if it continues to have a low general effect on community abundance and richness. At the species level, we detected differences in the habitat preferences related to species-specific ecological requirements (King et al 2010). Previous studies with various taxa have already detected species-specific differences in the influence of landscape configuration, for example, in relation to different hunting and foraging strategies (Öberg et al 2007;Hamer and Parris 2011).…”

“…Both the nesting and nonnesting guilds showed similar responses to landscape configuration and habitat quality. Previous studies have found important relationships between the habitat characteristics surrounding wetlands and bird communities (Chan et al 2007;Guadagnin and Maltchik 2007;King et al 2010). However, their analyses focused on wetland landscapes rather than the Landscape buffer was selected from the most parsimonious multivariate models (see Table 1).…”

Avian Foods, Foraging and Habitat Conservation in World Rice Fields

“…Further, most estimates of invertebrate biomass in rice fields are from North America, whereas abundance of vertebrate prey has received most study elsewhere and merits additional attention in North America (Gonzáles-Solís et al 1996;Fasola and Ruiz 1997;Richardson et al 2001). Understanding and managing rice fields as avian foraging habitats also will benefit from further research on factors affecting spatial and temporal variation in use of rice fields by foraging waterbirds, especially studies relating field use to covariates such as food abundance, vegetation cover and juxtaposition, landscape context and weather (King et al 2010). Finally, we especially recommend studies integrating food abundance and exploitation in the context of foraging theory, demographics and conservation planning for priority species (Fleury and Sherry 1995;Miller and Newton 1999;Amano et al 2004;Stafford et al 2006;Greer et al 2009).…”

The Future for Research on Waterbirds in Rice Fields

“…Converting natural habitat to rice fields will nearly always impact waterbird communities negatively, causing the loss of specialist species and important wetland functions (Tourenq et al 2001;Sundar and Subramanya 2010). Expanding the amount of rice habitat might also create indirect conflicts that negatively impact waterbirds, for example, by diverting water away from natural wetlands to irrigate the crop (King et al 2010). Even management actions designed to benefit waterbirds in rice fields-such as flooding fields during the non-growing season )-require careful consideration of both costs and benefits when they alter use patterns of limited resources such as water across landscapes.…”