Landscape-level thresholds of habitat cover for woodland-dependent birds

Radford, James Q.; Bennett, Andrew F.; Cheers, Garry

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2005.01.039

Cited by 425 publications

(467 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Impacts of habitat fragmentation were detrimental and for some species, including Weebill (Smicrornis brevirostris) and Spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus), greater structural connectivity supported larger populations. The same research program revealed variable responses among species (Radford et al 2005).…”

Section: Avian Declines and The Need For Understanding Ecological Promentioning

confidence: 93%

Towards modelling persistence of woodland birds: the role of genetics

Sunnucks

2011

Emu - Austral Ornithology

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Abstract. Assessing how environmental change affects the probability of persistence of organisms requires an understanding of dispersal through, and occupation of, landscapes, and the associated demographic outcomes. Projections of differences in persistence probability can then be made under different scenarios of land-use and global environmental change. Rates and distances of dispersal, and demographic change and trajectories, are difficult to measure accurately, but genetic approaches can make major contributions. For two decades the field of molecular ecology has been providing useful life-history information relevant to population management, including key ecological attributes such as disease-resistance and thermal biology, mobility, dispersal and gene flow, habitat connectivity, the spatial and temporal scales of population processes, and demography. Genetic estimators of these factors could be employed to a much greater extent than they are currently. To facilitate this increased use, genetic estimates of functional connectivity (mobility and gene flow of organisms) and demography need to be integrated directly into decision-making processes. Population genetics is well suited to Bayesian approaches, with associated benefits including the ability to consider many factors, and estimation of error and parameter sensitivities. Genetic estimators based on the mobility and reproductive success of individual organisms and their key ecological traits can make unique contributions alongside other types of data into agent-based, spatially explicit modelling approaches of real landscape scenarios at the range of scales needed by managers. Virtually all the tools to do this exist. It is imperative that genetic samples be collected for contemporary and future analyses.

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Section: Avian Declines and The Need For Understanding Ecological Promentioning

confidence: 93%

Towards modelling persistence of woodland birds: the role of genetics

Sunnucks

2011

Emu - Austral Ornithology

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“…For comparisons across a number of species and environments, however, or where exact details of habitat preferences are unclear, a more generalized approach can provide useful insights. Thus many studies of woodland bird responses to landscapes generalize habitat in terms of the extent or amount of tree cover (e.g., Andrén 1994, Freemark and Collins 1992, Parker et al 2005, Radford et al 2005, Desrochers et al 2010. We follow this convention in the present study.…”

Section: Land Cover and Landscape Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Parker et al's (2005) meta-analysis of 33 separate studies found a nonsignificant tendency for patch size effects to diminish as the amount of surrounding forest increased. Radford et al (2005) found that species richness responded differently to amount of tree cover in landscapes with aggregated versus dispersed tree cover. Ribic et al (2009a) found that abundance of some avian species was positively associated with proportion of suitable habitat in the landscape around a site, and in a broader literature review of area sensitivity in grassland birds, Ribic et al (2009b) reported that most studies found weaker evidence for area sensitivity in landscapes comprising a high proportion of grassland.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What you find depends on where you look: responses to proximate habitat vary with landscape context

Cunningham¹,

Johnson²

2016

ACE

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ABSTRACT. There is persistent interest in understanding responses of passerine birds to habitat fragmentation, but research findings have been inconsistent and sometimes contradictory in conclusions about how birds respond to characteristics of sites they occupy, such as habitat patch size or edge density. We examined whether these inconsistencies could result from differences in the amount of habitat in the surrounding landscape, e.g., for woodland birds, the amount of tree cover in the surrounding landscape. We compared responses of 22 woodland bird species to proximate-scale tree cover in open landscapes versus wooded landscapes. Our main expectation was that woodland birds would tolerate less suitable sites (less tree cover at the site scale) in open environments where they had little choice-where little tree cover was available in the surrounding area. We compared responses using logistic regression coefficients and loess plots in open and wooded landscapes in eastern North Dakota, USA. Responses to proximate-scale tree cover were stronger, not weaker, as expected, in open landscapes. In some cases the sign of the response changed from positive to negative in contrasting landscapes. We draw two conclusions: First, observed responses to proximate habitat measures such as habitat extent or edge density cannot be interpreted reliably unless landscape context is specified. Second, birds appear more selective, not less so, where habitat is sparse. Habitat loss and fragmentation at the landscape scale are likely to reduce the usefulness of local habitat conservation, and regional drivers in land-use change can have important effects for site-scale habitat use. Ce que vous trouvez dépend d'où vous regardez : les réactions aux milieux avoisinants varient selon le contexte paysagerRÉSUMÉ. La compréhension des réactions des passereaux face à la fragmentation d'habitat est un sujet d'intérêt continu au sein de la communauté scientifique, mais les résultats sont variables d'une recherche à l'autre, parfois même contradictoires en ce qui concerne la réaction des oiseaux en fonction des caractéristiques des sites qu'ils occupent, comme la taille du peuplement ou la densité de lisières forestières. Nous avons examiné si ces contradictions pouvaient être attribuables à l'étendue des différents milieux dans le paysage environnant, par exemple, pour les oiseaux forestiers, le couvert d'arbres dans le paysage avoisinant. Nous avons comparé la réaction de 22 espèces forestières relativement au couvert forestier à l'échelle locale dans des paysages ouverts et des paysages forestiers. Nous nous attendions à ce que les oiseaux forestiers tolèreraient des sites moins propices (superficie du couvert d'arbres faible à l'échelle du site) dans des environnements ouverts où ils avaient peu de choix, c'est-à-dire qu'il y avait peu de couverture forestière dans les environs. Nous avons comparé les réactions au moyen de coefficients de régression logistique et de nuages de points loess dans des paysages ouverts ou boisés dans l'est du Dak...

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“…By providing an understanding of the role of habitat cover in earlier patterns of bird distribution, the results may provide insights into the causes of local extinctions (Radford et al, 2005). Furthermore, by comparing the relationship with habitat cover of the relatively well-studied Marsh Tit against the relationships of the two lesser-known species, inferences might be made regarding the spatial ecology of the latter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between patterns of habitat cover and the historical distribution of the Marsh Tit, Willow Tit and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in Britain

Broughton

Hill

Hinsley

2013

Ecological Informatics

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Spatial analysis of remotely-sensed land cover data in conjunction with species distribution atlases can reveal large-scale relationships between animal taxa and their habitats. We investigated the historical distribution patterns of three declining woodland birds, the Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris), Willow Tit (Poecile montana) and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor), in relation to a parsimonious landscape metric for describing habitat availability in Britain. Bird distributions were derived from two field-based atlas surveys, conducted in 1968-1972 and 1988-1991, and used to classify areas of the landscape for each species as retained, lost or gained between atlas periods, or unoccupied in both. We used remotely-sensed land cover data from 1990 to compare percentage habitat cover between landscape areas classified by bird occupation, and regional summary data from national woodland inventories to investigate changes in habitat cover and bird distributions.Percentage habitat cover was a sufficient landscape metric to explain the distribution pattern of all three bird species; habitat cover was greatest in areas where each species was retained between atlas surveys, significantly less in areas from which species were lost, and least in areas that remained unoccupied. Reductions in Marsh Tit distribution were less in regions Broughton et al. (2013) Ecological Informatics 14:25-30 2 that showed greater increases in habitat cover, but there was no such relationship for other species. Results indicated that spatial studies could be used to infer aspects of the spatial ecology of species where field data is lacking: by comparing distribution patterns with the relatively well-studied Marsh Tit, we found support for the assumption that the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker occupies very large territories in Britain, and provided evidence that the spatial habitat requirements of the Marsh Tit could be used as a proxy for the data-poor Willow Tit. The results showed that the habitat cover required to retain each species in the landscape had increased over time, illustrating how spatial studies can be used to identify priorities for further research and suggest conservation measures for declining species, and these are discussed.

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Landscape-level thresholds of habitat cover for woodland-dependent birds

Cited by 425 publications

References 56 publications

Towards modelling persistence of woodland birds: the role of genetics

Towards modelling persistence of woodland birds: the role of genetics

What you find depends on where you look: responses to proximate habitat vary with landscape context

Relationships between patterns of habitat cover and the historical distribution of the Marsh Tit, Willow Tit and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in Britain

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