Museum collections indicate bird defaunation in a biodiversity hotspot

Abstract

Ipanema National Forest, southeastern Brazil, once contained 340 bird species. Forest cover suffered for centuries from log exploitation and, as a result, most of the remaining forests are now an impoverished subset of the original vegetation. We show how the bird community changed over time by comparing historical and recent records. Currently, 228 species can be recorded, for a compilation of 410 species, of which 359 are documented. Some 89 forest species with historical records failed to be detected in recent surveys. Of the 72 Atlantic Forest or Cerrado endemic species, no more than 29 (40%) are still found. The bird community changed from one which used to be related to coastline rain forests to another, which relates more to drier semideciduous forests of the interior.Keywords: Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, hierarchical cluster analysis, multivariate analysis, semideciduous forests. Coleções de museus indicam defaunação de aves em um hotspot de biodiversidadeResumo: A Floresta Nacional de Ipanema, sudeste do Brasil, já abrigou 340 espécies de aves. Sua cobertura florestal sofreu por séculos com a exploração de madeira e, desse modo, a maior parte da vegetação remanescente é uma sub-representação daquela original. Neste artigo é demonstrado como a comunidade de aves foi modificada com o passar do tempo por meio da comparação entre registros históricos e recentes. Atualmente, 228 espécies podem ser registradas, para um total de 410 espécies, das quais 359 possuem documentação. Das espécies registradas historicamente, 89 não foram mais detectadas. Das 72 espécies endêmicas da Mata Atlântica ou do Cerrado, apenas 29 (40%) ainda podem ser encontradas. A comunidade de aves, outrora similar à de florestas ombrófilas costeiras, atualmente é mais relaciona à comunidade de matas semideciduais mais secas do interior.

Records of the Ornate Hawk-eagle, Spizaetus ornatus (Daudin, 1800) (Accipitridae), from the state of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil

“…Pristine or mature secondary forests at the 5,000 ha Ipanema National Forest are long gone and the species has not been recorded there since the 19th century (Cavarzere et al 2017). In Presidente Epitácio, where the species has also been previously recorded, there are still some relatively large (ca 500 ha) remnants.…”

Isotopic niches of tropical birds reduced by anthropogenic impacts: a 100‐year perspective

“…Although it is well known that anthropogenic impacts directly influence bird communities (Morante‐Filho et al 2015, Alexandrino et al 2017, Cavarzere et al 2017), it is less clear how these effects change the patterns of habitat use and diet of species. The conceptual framework of Eltonian niche considers the relationships among the organism, its food resources and interspecific dynamics, unlike the concept of Grinnellian niche that depicts abiotic variables as axes (e.g.…”

Avian extinctions induced by the oldest Amazonian hydropower mega dam: evidence from museum collections and sighting data spanning 172 years

“…To work around data deficiencies and make long-term approaches feasible, several studies have empirically assessed predictions of avian assemblage changes in response to forest loss using both recent and historical records compiled from museum specimens and the literature across the Neotropical realm (see Kattan, Alvarez-Lopez & Giraldo, 1994 ; Christiansen & Pitter, 1997 ; Robinson, 1999 ; Ribon, Simon & Mattos, 2003 ; Moura et al, 2014 ; Cavarzere et al, 2017 ).…”