Forest edges have high conservation value for bird communities in mosaic landscapes.

ABSTRACT: A major conservation challenge in mosaic landscapes is to understand how trait-specific responses to habitat edges affect bird communities, including potential cascading effects on bird functions providing ecosystem services to forests, such as pest control. Here, we examined how bird species richness, abundance and community composition varied from interior forest habitats and their edges into adjacent open habitats, within a multi-regional sampling scheme. We further analyzed variations in Conservation Value Index (CVI), Community Specialization Index (CSI) and functional traits across the forest-edge-open habitat gradient. Bird species richness, total abundance and CVI were significantly higher at forest edges while CSI peaked at interior open habitats, i.e., furthest from forest edge.

SUBMITTER: Terraube J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4984496 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature