Using landscape habitat associations to prioritize areas of conservation action for terrestrial birds

Harms, Tyler M.; Murphy, Karen L.; Lyu, Xiaodan; Patterson, Shane S.; Kinkead, Karen E.; Dinsmore, Stephen J.; Frese, Paul W.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0173041

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Diversity of birds has been shown to relate to trees on a landscape in addition to territory-level habitat characteristics. To account for this, we calculated % tree cover in a 1-km radius with the UMD Forest Cover dataset [39] given evidence birds respond at this distance [40,41]. We started with the % Tree Cover Raster from the year 2000, reclassified all “forest loss” pixels in the 2017 Forest Loss Raster as 0% tree cover, and reclassified all “forest gain” pixels in the 2014 Forest Gains raster as 30% tree cover using the “Raster Calculator” tool in ArcGIS 10.5.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation of Neotropical migratory birds in tropical hardwood and oil palm plantations

et al. 2018

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Tropical forests in the Americas are undergoing rapid conversion to commercial agriculture, and many migratory bird species that use these forests have experienced corresponding populations declines. Conservation research for migratory birds in the tropics has focused overwhelmingly on shade coffee plantations and adjacent forest, but both cover types are now in decline, creating an urgent need to evaluate conservation opportunities in other agricultural systems. Here we compare how a community of 42 Neotropical migratory bird species and a subset of five conservation-priority species differ in usage and habitat associations among a secondary forest baseline and four expanding commercial plantation systems in Guatemala: African oil palm, teak, rubber, and mixed-native hardwoods. We found that mixed-native hardwood plantations supported the highest richness and diversity of all migrants and that the three hardwood plantation types generally outperformed oil palm in richness and diversity metrics. Despite this, oil palm supported high abundance of several common and widespread species also experiencing range-wide population declines and may therefore play an important role in conserving common species. Mature secondary forest hosted low abundance and diversity of the full migratory community, but high abundance and richness of conservation priority migrants along with native hardwood and teak plantations. Likewise, the percentage of forest cover on the landscape was positively associated with priority migrant abundance and richness but negatively associated with the abundance of migrants in general, highlighting how individual species within the broad group of Neotropical migratory landbirds respond differently to anthropogenic changes in land use. Across all cover types, the retention of tall overstory trees increased the abundance, richness, and diversity of all migrants, which indicates that vertical structural diversity and remnant trees are important habitat features for birds in agricultural landscapes. Our findings show that conservation opportunities exist in hardwood and oil palm plantations, though the species likely to benefit from conservation action will vary among plantation types. For the subset of conservation priority migrants, our results suggest that conservation efforts should combine strategies that retain and restore secondary forest, promote the adoption of native hardwood and teak plantations, and promote the retention of tall, remnant trees in agricultural landscapes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation of Neotropical migratory birds in tropical hardwood and oil palm plantations

et al. 2018

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“…Weather conditions affect detectability of birds (Zuckerberg et al, 2011; Hovick, Elmore & Fuhlendorf, 2014; Sliwinski et al, 2016). During each survey, we recorded cloud cover (clear, partly cloudy or cloudy) and temperature (cold, cool, warm or hot), together with wind conditions (calm, moderate or strong) (Harms et al, 2017). Because of our small data set, we wanted to reduce these weather covariates into a single variable representing observability.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic multi-species occupancy models reveal individualistic habitat preferences in a high-altitude grassland bird community

Maphisa

Smit‐Robinson

Altwegg

2019

PeerJ

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Moist, high-altitude grasslands of eastern South African harbour rich avian diversity and endemism. This area is also threatened by increasingly intensive agriculture and land conversion for energy production. This conflict is particularly evident at Ingula, an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area located within the least conserved high-altitude grasslands and which is also the site of a new Pumped Storage Scheme. The new management seeks to maximise biodiversity through manipulation of the key habitat variables: grass height and grass cover through burning and grazing to make habitat suitable for birds. However, different species have individual habitat preferences, which further vary through the season. We used a dynamic multi-species occupancy model to examine the seasonal occupancy dynamics of 12 common grassland bird species and their habitat preferences. We estimated monthly occupancy, colonisation and persistence in relation to grass height and grass cover throughout the summer breeding season of 2011/12. For majority of these species, at the beginning of the season occupancy increased with increasing grass height and decreased with increasing grass cover. Persistence and colonisation decreased with increasing grass height and cover. However, the 12 species varied considerably in their responses to grass height and cover. Our results suggest that management should aim to provide plots which vary in grass height and cover to maximise bird diversity. We also conclude that the decreasing occupancy with increasing grass cover and low colonisation with increasing grass height and cover is a results of little grazing on our study site. We further conclude that some of the 12 selected species are good indicators of habitat suitability more generally because they represent a range of habitat needs and are relatively easy to monitor.

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“…Understanding where species occur, and why individuals occur in some areas but not others, is essential for developing conservation or management plans, especially for rare (Rabinowitz 1981) or endangered taxa (Rushton et al 2004, Muñoz et al 2005, Guisan et al 2013, Harms et al 2017. Spatial distribution of a species is largely shaped by environmental heterogeneity, including variation in climate, land cover, natural disturbance history, and biotic interactions, together with constraints provided by species dispersal ability (MacArthur 1972, Block and Brennan 1993, Castro et al 2008, Chen et al 2011.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial distribution of the Boreal Owl and Northern Saw-whet Owl in the Boreal region of Alberta, Canada

Domahidi¹,

Shonfield²,

Nielsen³

et al. 2019

ACE

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Understanding what factors influence the occurrence and distribution across the landscape is necessary for species conservation and management. Distribution data for many owl species are inadequate because of their nocturnal behavior and cryptic nature. We examined the role of climate, land cover, and human disturbance in shaping spatial distribution of the Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus) and Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus) in northern Alberta. Using autonomous recording units, we conducted passive acoustic surveys to detect owls of both species throughout Alberta's boreal forest. We compiled data on environmental variables at each sample site corresponding to a local scale and at landscape scale. A boosted regression tree analysis identified average minimum winter temperature as the most important predictor of Boreal Owl distribution. Boreal Owls were more likely to be present in cool environments with cold winters, and a low percentage of grassland cover at the landscape scale. Cropland cover at the local scale was the most influential factor in the final distribution model for the Northern Saw-whet Owl, and they were more likely to be present in areas where cropland was interspersed with deciduous-dominated forests. Furthermore, these areas generally had cool summer temperatures and received less precipitation as snow. Linear features at the landscape scale negatively influenced distribution of Boreal Owls, but edges created by linear features at local scale positively influenced Northern Saw-whet Owl distribution. Our study provides new information about habitat use that can be applied in management and conservation of these two poorly studied species of owls.

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Using landscape habitat associations to prioritize areas of conservation action for terrestrial birds

Cited by 17 publications

References 52 publications

Conservation of Neotropical migratory birds in tropical hardwood and oil palm plantations

Conservation of Neotropical migratory birds in tropical hardwood and oil palm plantations

Dynamic multi-species occupancy models reveal individualistic habitat preferences in a high-altitude grassland bird community

Spatial distribution of the Boreal Owl and Northern Saw-whet Owl in the Boreal region of Alberta, Canada

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