A review of threshold responses of birds to landscape changes across the world

Melo, Isabel; Ochoa-Quintero, José Manuel; Roque, Fábio de Oliveira; Dalsgaard, Bo

doi:10.1111/jofo.12272

Cited by 32 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(134 reference statements)

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“…Our result is consistent with a recent review on threshold responses of birds to habitat loss, which found a mean habitat cover threshold at 29.5% in tropical landscapes (Melo et al 2018). At low habitat levels, fragmentation effects compound those of habitat loss, such that the rate of change in the ecological response is greater than expected from habitat loss alone (Swift and Hannon 2010).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Coextinction of phylogenetic related species may cause the loss of entire functional groups, since closely related species share a number of traits affecting particular functions of organisms, such as seed dispersal. With respect to our measure of habitat amount, we used the percentage of forest cover in a defined area, an important measure that is widely used in studies that investigate threshold responses to land cover change (Melo et al 2018). Although we recognize that spatial configuration and species traits may interact and affect thresholds (Villard and Metzger 2014), habitat cover plays a critical role in defining biodiversity persistence (Fahrig 2013, Banks-Leite et al 2014, Melo et al 2018.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predicting the non‐linear collapse of plant–frugivore networks due to habitat loss

et al. 2019

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Habitat loss can trigger cascades of secondary extinctions, changing the organization of interacting assemblages. Until recently, most extinction models in interaction systems had limited ecological realism. Here, we estimate a realistic sequence of species extinctions resulting from habitat loss to assess its impacts on the structure of frugivory networks from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We show that realistic and random extinctions led to similar patterns. We also identified a threshold in the response of network structure to habitat loss. When forest cover was reduced to less than 40% of the landscape, network organization changed dramatically. Hence, the number of species being lost, rather than the order of species extinctions, is the key determinant of its impacts on the organization of frugivory networks. We highlight the need to conserve around 40% of forest cover to keep the basic organization of frugivory networks, a threshold already reached at the best‐preserved Brazilian Atlantic Forest bioregion.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting the non‐linear collapse of plant–frugivore networks due to habitat loss

et al. 2019

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“…The biodiversity decline may be initiated if the amount of available habitat falls below a certain, often species-specific, threshold level 6 . This may lead to the emergence of non-linear response of biodiversity to habitat fragmentation 7 .…”

Section: Different Response Of the Taxonomic Phylogenetic And Functimentioning

confidence: 99%

Different response of the taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity of birds to forest fragmentation

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Amano

et al. 2020

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Habitat fragmentation is considered as major threat to biodiversity worldwide. Biodiversity can be described as taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity. However, the effect of forest fragmentation on taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity is barely understood. We compare the response of taxonomic (species richness), phylogenetic and functional diversity of birds to forest fragmentation. We hypothesised that with increasing forest patch isolation and/or decreasing patch size the diversity of birds decreases but only if certain thresholds of fragmentation metrics are reached. Specifically, we hypothesized that out of the three diversity components the taxonomic diversity is the most sensitive to forest fragmentation, which means that it starts declining at larger patch size and higher connectivity values than phylogenetic and functional diversity do. We compared the three biodiversity metrics of central European bird species in a large set of forest patches located in an agricultural landscape. General additive modeling and segmented regression were used in analyses. Habitat fragmentation differentially affected studied biodiversity metrics. Bird taxonomic diversity was the most responsive towards changes in fragmentation. We observed an increase in taxonomic diversity with increasing patch area, which then stabilized after reaching certain patch size. Functional diversity turned out to be the least responsive to the fragmentation metrics and forest stand characteristics. It decreased linearly with the decreasing isolation of forest patches. Apart from the habitat fragmentation, bird taxonomic diversity but not phylogenetic diversity was positively associated with forest stand age. The lower share of dominant tree species, the highest taxonomic diversity was. While preserving a whole spectrum of forests (in terms of age, fragmentation and size) is important from the biodiversity perspective, forest bird species might need large, intact, old-growth forests. Since the large and intact forest becomes scarcer, our study underscore their importance for the preservation of forest specialist species.

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“…Bird diversity can be constrained by ''thresholds'' of land-surface conditions-such as vegetation availability-in the wider landscape (Andersen et al 2009;Gutzwiller et al 2015). A global review of threshold responses to landscape-wide changes in LULC suggests that bird diversity is most affected if more than 27.9% of the landscape has changed (Melo et al 2018). With exception of a few BBS routes (Figs.…”

Section: Variability In Explanatory Power In Space and Functional Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape-wide changes in land use and land cover correlate with, but rarely explain local biodiversity change

2020

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Context There is an ongoing debate whether local biodiversity is declining and what might drive this change. Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) are suspected to impact local biodiversity. However, there is little evidence for LULC changes beyond the local scale to affect biodiversity across multiple functional groups of species, thus limiting our understanding of the causes of biodiversity change. Objectives Here we investigate whether landscape-wide changes in LULC, defined as either trends in or abrupt changes in magnitude of photosynthetic activity, are driving bird diversity change. Methods Linking 34 year (1984–2017) time series at 2745 breeding bird survey (BBS) routes across the conterminous United States of America with remotely-sensed Landsat imagery, we assessed for each year what proportion of the landscape surrounding each BBS route changed in photosynthetic activity and tested whether such concomitant or preceding landscape-wide changes explained changes in bird diversity, quantified as relative abundance (geometric mean) and assemblage composition (Bray–Curtis index). Results We found that changes in relative abundance was negatively, and assemblage composition positively, correlated with changes in photosynthetic activity within the wider landscape. Furthermore, landscape-wide changes in LULC in preceding years explained on average more variation in bird diversity change than concomitant change. Overall, landscape-wide changes in LULC failed to explain most of the variation in bird diversity change for most BBS routes regardless whether differentiated by functional groups or ecoregions. Conclusions Our analyses highlight the influence of preceding and concomitant landscape-wide changes in LULC on biodiversity.

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A review of threshold responses of birds to landscape changes across the world

Cited by 32 publications

References 61 publications

Predicting the non‐linear collapse of plant–frugivore networks due to habitat loss

Predicting the non‐linear collapse of plant–frugivore networks due to habitat loss

Different response of the taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity of birds to forest fragmentation

Landscape-wide changes in land use and land cover correlate with, but rarely explain local biodiversity change

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