Bird Community Composition in a Shaded Coffee Agro-ecological Matrix in Puebla, Mexico: The Effects of Landscape Heterogeneity at Multiple Spatial Scales

This study examined the importance of habitat heterogeneity on the avian community composition, and investigated the scale at which species abundances respond to habitat variables. The study was conducted within a diverse landscape matrix of a shaded coffee region in Mexico. To detect at which chara...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biotropica Vol. 42; no. 2; pp. 236 - 245
Main Authors: Leyequién, Eurídice, de Boer, W.F., Toledo, Víctor M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.03.2010
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Subjects:
4th-corner method
agricultural landscapes
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Aves
avifauna
biodiversity conservation
Biological and medical sciences
Birds
breeding birds
canopy
Coffee plantations
community structure
Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife
diversity
dynamic landscapes
environment relationships
foraging
Forest canopy
Forest conservation
forest fragmentation
Forest habitats
forests
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Habitat conservation
habitat fragmentation
habitat heterogeneity
habitats
Insectivores
Landscapes
Mexico
patch size
plantations
redundancy analysis
Species
species diversity
tropical agroecosystems
Tropical Biology
Vegetation structure
Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution
Mexico
Community structure
Puebla Mexico
Composition
agricultural landscapes
redundancy analysis
Rural environment
4th-corner method
Fauna
Redundancy
Tropical zone
Rural landscape
Ecology
Method
Coffee
Agroecology
avifauna
Heterogeneity
Vertebrata
Animal community
Habitat
Aves
habitat heterogeneity
ISSN:0006-3606, 1744-7429
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This study examined the importance of habitat heterogeneity on the avian community composition, and investigated the scale at which species abundances respond to habitat variables. The study was conducted within a diverse landscape matrix of a shaded coffee region in Mexico. To detect at which characteristic spatial scale different species and foraging guilds respond most strongly we analyzed the effect of plot-, patch-and landscape-level variables at different spatial extent (i. e., different kilometer radii) on species composition and foraging guilds. We used redundancy analysis to identify species-environment correlations, and to identify predictor variables that best explained the bird community structure, quantified the influence of plot-, patch-and landscape-level variables on the bird community composition. In addition, we used the 4th-corner method to detect significant relationships between the dietary guilds and plot-, patch-and landscape-level variables. We recorded 12,335 individuals of 181 bird species; 105 bird species were recorded foraging within the shaded coffee plantations. We found that plot-and landscape-level variables significantly explained the bird community composition best across all scales, and were significantly correlated with the abundance of the dietary guilds. In contrast, patch-level variables were less important. Habitat composition variables (i. e., coffee, forest and agricultural area) were among the most important predictors. Canopy structure was more important than other vegetation structure variables in explaining dietary guild structure. Hence, the maintenance of a heterogeneous landscape with a high-quality matrix within an agro-ecological region enhances bird conservation.
Bibliography:istex:30941218D9BB097E105F60EB1E6C7BF35B0C0AC1
ArticleID:BTP553
ark:/67375/WNG-JX4KHQ3S-0
Corresponding author; e‐mail
leyequien@cicy.mx
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ISSN:0006-3606
1744-7429
DOI:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2009.00553.x