Natural windbreaks sustain bird diversity in a tea-dominated landscape.

ABSTRACT: Windbreaks often form networks of forest habitats that improve connectivity and thus conserve biodiversity, but little is known of such effects in the tropics. We determined bird species richness and community composition in windbreaks composed of remnant native vegetation amongst tea plantations (natural windbreaks), and compared it with the surrounding primary forests. Fifty-one, ten-minute point counts were conducted in each habitat type over three days. Despite the limited sampling period, our bird inventories in both natural windbreaks and primary forests were nearly complete, as indicated by bootstrap true richness estimator. Bird species richness and abundance between primary forests and windbreaks were similar, however a difference in bird community composition was observed. Abunda

SUBMITTER: Sreekar R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3726631 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature