Avian Extinctions from Tropical and Subtropical Forests

Abstract

Tropical forests are being lost at an alarming rate. Studies from various tropical locations report losses of forest birds as possibly direct or indirect results of deforestation. Although it may take a century for all the sensitive species to be extirpated from a site following habitat loss, species with larger or heavier bodies and those foraging on insects, fruits, or both are particularly extinction prone. Larger-or heavier-bodied species may occur at low densities, increasing their vulnerability to habitat alterations. Insectivores are vulnerable for reasons such as the loss of preferred microhabitats, poor dispersal abilities, and/or ground nesting habits that make them susceptible to predation. The lack of year-round availability of fruits may make survival in deforested or fragmented areas difficult for frugivores. Extirpation of large predators, superior competitors, pollinators, and seed dispersers may have repercussions for tropical ecosystem functioning. Large tropical reserves that adequately protect existing forest avifauna are needed. Sound ecological knowledge of tropical forest avifauna for biodiversity-friendly forest management practices is also needed but sorely lacking.

Unravelling the structure of species extinction risk for predictive conservation science

“…Encroachment and the ensuing loss of habitat and niche space [35] has been noted as a predictor of extinction risk in numerous smaller scale studies and in quantitative analyses on forest birds [16] as well as range-restricted birds [36]. Its relative importance across all birds in explaining threat above and beyond other (covarying) intrinsic and extrinsic effects is confirmed in our structural model (figure 1).…”

Matrix mediates avian movements in tropical forested landscapes: Inference from experimental translocations

“…doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2010. 05.025 are disproportionately declining in fragmented forests worldwide, with Neotropical-Nearctic migrants (e.g., Askins et al, 1990;Robbins et al, 1989) and Neotropical residents (e.g., Sigel et al, 2006;Sodhi et al, 2004;Stouffer et al, 2009) particularly impacted. Dispersal limitation is increasingly identified as a dominant mechanism underlying their demise (Lampila et al, 2005;Stratford and Robinson, 2005).…”

Biodiversity, functional roles and ecosystem services of groundwater invertebrates

“…The pressures of our burgeoning population and are extraordinarily difficult to understand because of the comassociated environmental changes are considered responsible plexity of the interdependent components and their non-linear for the current 'sixth great extinction in the history of life on interactions (Carpenter et al 2006). There has been extensive Earth' (Dirzo and Raven 2003), with numerous examples of work mapping the supply and demand for services, potential precipitous declines in biodiversity across a range of terresthreats, and estimates of economic value (Costanza et al 1997; trial, marine, and aquatic ecosystems (Sodhi et al 2004;Heal 2000;Murray et al 2006) but relatively little research on Millenium Ecosystem Assessment 2005; Worm et al 2006). the specific mechanisms of how the various facets of biodiverThe natural diversity of all organisms is an essential resource sity provide these services (Kremen 2005).…”