Responses ofPolylepisbirds to patch and landscape attributes in the High Andes

Abstract

Habitat loss and fragmentation can devastate biodiversity, especially at regional and global scales. However, generalizing to individual species is challenging given the wide variety of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that shape species-specific responses -particularly among species that are specialists, generalists, or adapted to naturally patchy landscapes. In this study, we examined how patch and landscape attributes affected bird communities within Polylepis forest ecosystems, which are patchily distributed within landscapes of Puna grasslands and shrublands in the High Andes of Peru (3,300-4,700 m). We surveyed birds in 59 Polylepis patches and 47 sites in the Puna matrix, resulting in 13,210 observations of 88 bird species, including 15 species of conservation concern specialized on Polylepis. Data were analysed using Multi-Species Occupancy-Models (MSOM) and cumulative species-area curves. Species richness was generally greatest at mid-to-low elevations, within small fragments, and in landscapes with comparatively little forest cover; this was especially true for birds associated with the Puna matrix. Consistent with the hypothesis that Polylepis specialists are adapted to naturally patchy landscapes, we found no evidence that Polylepis specialists were sensitive to patch size, though two of nine species were positively related to forest cover within 200 m. Our work shows that small patches of Polylepis have high ecological value and that conservation of species of concern may depend more on retaining at least 10% forest cover within landscapes than on the presence of large patches of Polylepis.

Avifaunal responses after two decades of Polylepis forest restoration in central Argentina

“…Therefore, in the restoration site, the presence of species categorized as of conservation priority, such as Cinclodes olrogi [22], reinforces the importance of projects like the present one to promote the recovery of specialist birds of this particular ecosystem [45][46][47], whose bird richness depends on patch connectivity and conservation [9]. In turn, a recent study found no evidence that Polylepis specialist bird species were sensitive to patch size, and indicated the high ecological value of small patches for their conservation [48].…”

A monograph of the genus Polylepis (Rosaceae)

“…in Paria Valley, most trees of P. albicans are 4–7 m tall (maximum 10–12.5 m) with diameters of 10–20 cm (maximum 50–60 cm) ( Castro and Flores 2015 ). The Polylepis forests in this region harbor diverse bird communities with a substantial proportion of threatened species, some of which are specialized to Polylepis forests ( Sevillano-Ríos et al 2011 ; Sevillano-Ríos and Rodewald 2017 , 2021 ).…”

La temperatura y radiación solar explican diferencias en la distribución de dos árboles altoandinos (Polylepis spp.) localmente simpátricos en la Cordillera Blanca, Perú

“…Las plantaciones con especies exóticas de Polylepis debería ser evitada debido a que estas podrían hibridarse con las especies nativas y afectar negativamente la diversidad genética local [29]. La conservación de los bosques pequeños es tan importante como el de los grandes [65,66], ya que, en conjunto, los pequeños representan una gran proporción de la cantidad de total de bosques de ambas especies y podrían ser el hábitat clave para algunas especies de importancia para la conservación [41,66]. Finalmente, creemos que nuestra aproximación para determinar el nicho y la cobertura de estas dos especies puede aplicarse a muchas otras.…”