Spatial Heterogeneity and Bird Species Diversity

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Ecological Society of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Ecology. A bstract. A heterogeneity index, D, derived from the point-quarter technique was significantly correlated with bird species diversity (BSD) for several shrub and forest areas. It predicted BSD for a series of similar brushlands where other indices had failed. Species richness increased faster than species overlap in a series of increasingly complex habitats up to the forest stage. Species overlap was negatively correlated with patchiness. Additional species may be accommodated in preforest habitats primarily by horizontal spatial segregation facilitated by the presence of additional patches. New patches result from the addition of layers of vegetation. In late shrub or forest stages other kinds of segregation such as vertical segregation become important to species packing.Patchiness, as measured here, has a proximate effect on avian diversity. The extent or existence of latitudinal gradients in habitat patchiness and the effect on bird species diversity is unknown. The need remains for a universal, simple, yet meaningful, heterogeneity index which incorporates both horizontal and vertical variability of vegetation.

Taxocenose de aves em um remanescente da Floresta com Araucária no Sudeste do Paraná, Brasil

“…Essas características estruturais de vegetação, com diferentes estratificações, favorecem a presença das guildas dependentes destes ambientes (Roth 1976, Orians 1969, Anjos 1990, Machado & Lamas 1996 tais como as mencionadas anteriormente. Hábitats altamente complexos oferecem mais nichos que hábitats estruturalmente mais simples (Recher 1969, August 1983, Oniki & Willis 1986), proporcionando maior diversificação de recursos espaciais e alimentares (Roth 1976, Paglia et al 1995.…”

Mixing of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) enhances structural heterogeneity, and the effect increases with water availability

“…Increases in species diversity and heterogeneity of other structural attributes can, e.g., stabilize and raise the productivity (Bielak et al, 2014;Lei et al, 2009;Liang et al, 2007;Jucker et al, 2014;Pretzsch et al, 2013Pretzsch et al, , 2015aRío and Sterba, 2009), stability (Griess and Knoke, 2011;Jactel and Brockerhoff, 2007), reduced sensitivity to drought (Grossiord et al, 2014;Metz et al, 2013), habitat diversity (Tews et al, 2004), plant and animal richness (Brunet et al, 2010;Ishii et al, 2004;Roth, 1976), and the aesthetic value (Schütz, 2002;Stölb, 2005) of forest stands. On the other hand more heterogeneous structures can have a negative effect on some taxa (Paillet et al, 2010), on the wood quality (Pretzsch and Rais, 2016), on the effort of forest inventory, planning, and management (von Gadow, 1998;von Gadow et al, 2002), and on the costs of opening up the stands to harvest the timber (Keegan et al, 1995;Kellogg et al, 1996).…”

Conserving Biodiversity in Urbanizing Areas: Nontraditional Views from a Bird's Perspective

“…Ecologists have long known that bird diversity is linked to plant communities (MacArthur and MacArthur 1961;James 1971;Roth 1976;James and Wamer 1982). Shifts in vegetation can be induced by hydrological changes associated with impervious surfaces which can increase erosion, destabilize streambanks, promote sedimentation, and even modify the water table (Pickett et al 2001).…”