Bird communities and extended biotic index (EBI) in some tributaries of the Tiber river

Sorace, Alberto; Colombari, Paolo Tito; Cordiner, Enrico

doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-0755(199905/06)9:3<279::aid-aqc345>3.0.co;2-4

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…This is important, in order to understand the impacts of both natural and human factors on avian diversity (Heikkinen et al 2004), as breeding bird communities might reflect the integrity of riparian habitats and often have specific habitat requirements (Sorace et al 1999;Rabac¸a 2004;Rodewald and Bakermans 2006). Essentially, we intend to answer the following question: which environmental variables account for the occurrence of breeding bird species associated with Mediterranean rivers?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breeding bird assemblages in riparian galleries of the Guadiana River basin (Portugal): the effect of spatial structure and habitat variables

Godinho

Rabaça

Segurado³

2009

Ecological Research

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Habitat structure is a major determinant of bird community composition and a link between riparian vegetation and bird communities in riparian zones, suggesting that changes in bird community composition can be predicted from changes in habitats. Our study aimed to identify the relationships between the structure of breeding bird communities and environmental drivers, using fine-resolution habitat measurements. We examined two bird assemblages (Passerines, P; and Aquatic/Riparian species, AR) and their spatial structure and relationships to environmental river variables in riparian galleries in southern Portugal. The study was conducted on the ca. 230 km of riparian corridors located in the flooded area of the Alqueva reservoir, before closure of the dam. We used data from 134 10-min point counts. Using variation partitioning, we determined the independent and joint effects of river edge, river bed, and spatial variables on our selected bird assemblages. The variation in bird assemblages captured was 27.5% for P and 55.3% for AR. The explanatory variables that were highlighted as important predictors for both bird groups were variables that reflected the complexity of the riparian gallery vegetation: rivers with high vegetation cover of riparian species, and riverbeds and riversides dominated by rock and scarce emergent rooted vegetation. Most of the explained variation was related to environmental variables: river-edge, river-bed, and their joint effect. Riparian areas can be considered a specific habitat and the variables analyzed are habitat descriptors at a fine scale, so that we believe that the speciesenvironment relationships revealed in this study could be good indicators of the wealth of riparian ecosystems in Mediterranean rivers.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Breeding bird assemblages in riparian galleries of the Guadiana River basin (Portugal): the effect of spatial structure and habitat variables

Godinho

Rabaça

Segurado³

2009

Ecological Research

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“…Ormerod et al. , 1986; Sorace, Colombari & Cordiner, 1999; Ormerod, Tyler & Jüttner, 2000). Most importantly, however, there is extensive expertise, both amateur and professional, that can be mobilized to carry out bird monitoring at low cost, and birds attract much popular appeal, for example as ‘headline indicators’ of wider environmental trends (DETR, 1999; Defra, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining surveys of river habitats and river birds to appraise riverine hydromorphology

2007

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1. Biological monitoring is vital to river conservation. Aside from providing census data, regular monitoring may detect population trends that reflect the degradation or remediation of riverine environments. Birds are major candidates for this purpose because of their connections to riverine food webs and river habitat features. However, much information on factors affecting river bird distributions is qualitative. 2. River bird populations have been surveyed annually in the U.K. since 1974. The value of this monitoring could be increased if links between population trends and changes in riverine landscapes or channel hydromorphology were better understood. We modelled the relationships between bird species' distributions recorded by the British Trust for Ornithology's Waterways Breeding Bird Survey (WBBS) and hydromorphology recorded by the Environment Agency's River Habitat Survey (RHS). 3. Regression models were built for 20 bird species associated with the river channel and neighbouring floodplains. This provided one of the first illustrations in ecology of generalized estimating equations (GEEs) for extending generalized linear models to instances where individual observations are not statistically independent. GEEs could offer a range of benefits to freshwater biologists, as they are a simple approach to analysing hierarchical, correlated data while maintaining the ease of interpretation with a range of link functions and data types. 4. Upland, fast water species and reedbed specialists showed the closest links with RHS, followed by lowland, slow water species, where correlations to RHS varied widely in magnitude. The distributions of floodplain wading birds were poorly modelled by RHS, suggesting that floodplain land uses as quantified by RHS were poor predictors of distributions. Marked preferences between upland and lowland channels were evident for most species. Specific features were also important, including hydraulics, bank/channel vegetation, depositional features and anthropogenic structures. 5. Monitoring the abundance and distribution of a range of bird species, with a diversity of life histories, could be a valuable tool for assessing trends in riverine landscapes and whole river basins. RHS captures useful information about channel hydromorphology and vegetation, but needs supplementing with additional environmental information to describe (i) the wider riverine landscape (e.g. more detailed floodplain variables, proximity of other waterbodies) and (ii) water chemistry. Although further work is required, this study suggests that WBBS and RHS add mutual value in appraising the river environment. We advocate the further development of birds as indicators in riverine

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“…But studies on the impact of landuse on air quality and bird diversity are limited. It has been demonstrated that birds serve as indicators of habitat change (Lawton et al 1998;Gregory & Strien, 2010), air quality (Eeva et al, 2000;Eeva et al, 2003) and also water quality (Ormerod & Tyler, 1993;Sorace et al, 1999). We attempted to discuss our results on the impact of changes in landuse patterns on the air quality and bird diversity, particularly to fi nd out whether bird diversity can be used as an indicator of air pollution and landuse changes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landuse Patterns, Air Quality and Bird Diversity in Urban Landscapes of Delhi

Kumar

2022

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In the present paper we attempted to explain the relationships among the landuse pattern, levels of air pollutants and bird diversity based on data from 5 sampling sites in Delhi. Five landuse categories- percent built up area, tree cover, park area and barren area were recognized in the study area. The objective of this study is to find out the effects of landuse changes on air pollution and bird diversity and whether birds can serve as indicator of landuse changes and air pollutants. The levels of six air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NOX, SO2, Ozone and Benzene) from the monitoring stations were used. The bird diversity was assessed using conventional measures. All the sites showed remarkable differences with respect to each of the five landuse categories, air pollution levels, and bird diversity. The results suggest that landuse changes influence air pollution and bird diversity and some bird species can be used as indicator of landuse change and air pollution.

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Bird communities and extended biotic index (EBI) in some tributaries of the Tiber river

Cited by 12 publications

References 23 publications

Breeding bird assemblages in riparian galleries of the Guadiana River basin (Portugal): the effect of spatial structure and habitat variables

Breeding bird assemblages in riparian galleries of the Guadiana River basin (Portugal): the effect of spatial structure and habitat variables

Combining surveys of river habitats and river birds to appraise riverine hydromorphology

Landuse Patterns, Air Quality and Bird Diversity in Urban Landscapes of Delhi

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