Birds as surrogates for biodiversity: An analysis of a data set from southern Québec

Garson, Justin; Aggarwal, Anshu; Sarkar, Sahotra

doi:10.1007/bf02704965

Cited by 77 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Bird communities are frequently used as indicators of environmental quality (Mayer and Cameron 2003;Lepczyk et al 2008) and are considered a useful proxy for assessing the human influence on biodiversity (Garson et al 2002;Lepczyk et al 2008;Evans et al 2009). Our results identified species as indicators of both, exurban development and forest.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of exurban development on bird species richness and diversity

2010

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Exurban development is an accelerating land use trend in the United States with new housing units emerging in formerly closed forests. Conservation practitioners and planners suspect exurban development alters ecological processes and biodiversity to a considerable larger extent than suspected by inhabitants of exurban development areas, but empirical support for this assertion is lacking. To examine the consequences of exurban development, we studied forest bird communities in exurban development and forests located in and around Shenandoah National Park and Massanutten Mountain in northern Virginia, USA. We conducted point-count surveys for birds three times at 106 sample locations from April to July 2006. We recorded 44 species in total; 30 species were present in both exurban development and forests, 9 species were only found in exurban development, and 5 species only in forest. Bird species composition differed significantly between land-use types based on analysis in a multiresponse permutation procedure (MRPP; P \ 0.01). Relative bird abundance for forest specialist species changed significantly in exurban development versus forest (t test, P \ 0.05). Three species, American Robin Turdus migratorius, Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis, and Common Grackle Quiscalus quiscula were indicators of exurban development. Indicators of forest were Carolina Chickadee Poecile carolinensis, Eastern Towhee Pipilo erythrophthalmus, and Wood Thrush Hylocichla mustelina. Our study demonstrates that exurban development alters bird community composition and relative abundance of forest specialist species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of exurban development on bird species richness and diversity

2010

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“…In particular, because trees are the main structural elements of forests and represent crucial food resources for many vertebrates and insects (Daniels et al 1992, Davis and Sutton 1998, Fermon et al 2000, Greenberg et al 2000, Willott et al 2000, Green et al 2005, they are commonly used to determine overall forest biodiversity (e.g., Oliver et al 1998, Williams-Linera et al 2005. Birds were included because they are the best-known major group of organisms and are much-used biodiversity indicators (Garson et al 2002, Schulze et al 2004, Jetz et al 2007. By comparing the predictive values of a, Da, and b diversity of floral and faunal groups, we provide basis data for the use of indicator taxa in the design of policies that aim at biodiversity conservation in tropical landscapes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alpha and beta diversity of plants and animals along a tropical land‐use gradient

Kessler

Abrahamczyk

Bos

et al. 2009

Ecological Applications

126

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Assessing the overall biological diversity of tropical rain forests is a seemingly insurmountable task for ecologists. Therefore, researchers frequently sample selected taxa that they believe reflect general biodiversity patterns. Usually, these studies focus on the congruence of α diversity (the number of species found per sampling unit) between taxa rather than on β diversity (turnover of species assemblages between sampling units). Such approaches ignore the potential role of habitat heterogeneity that, depending on the taxonomic group considered, can greatly enhance β diversity at local and landscape scales. We compared α and β diversity of four plant groups (trees, lianas, terrestrial herbs, epiphytic liverworts) and eight animal groups (birds, butterflies, lower canopy ants, lower canopy beetles, dung beetles, bees, wasps, and the parasitoids of the latter two) at 15 sites in Sulawesi, Indonesia, that represented natural rain forest and three types of cacao agroforests differing in management intensity. In total, we recorded 863 species. Patterns of species richness per study site varied strongly between taxonomic groups. Only 13-17% of the variance in species richness of one taxonomic group could be predicted from the species richness of another, and on average 12-18% of the variance of β diversity of a given group was predicted by that in other groups, although some taxon pairs had higher values (up to 76% for wasps and their parasitoids). The degree of congruence of patterns of α diversity was not influenced by sampling completeness, whereas the indicator value for β diversity improved when using a similarity index that accounts for incomplete sampling. The indication potential of α diversity for β diversity and vice versa was limited within taxa (7-20%) and virtually nil between them (0-4%). We conclude that different taxa can have largely independent patterns of α diversity and that patterns of β diversity can be more congruent. Thus, conservation plans on a landscape scale need to put more emphasis on the high heterogeneity of agroforests and the overarching role of β diversity shaping overall diversity patterns. Abstract. Assessing the overall biological diversity of tropical rain forests is a seemingly insurmountable task for ecologists. Therefore, researchers frequently sample selected taxa that they believe reflect general biodiversity patterns. Usually, these studies focus on the congruence of a diversity (the number of species found per sampling unit) between taxa rather than on b diversity (turnover of species assemblages between sampling units). Such approaches ignore the potential role of habitat heterogeneity that, depending on the taxonomic group considered, can greatly enhance b diversity at local and landscape scales. We compared a and b diversity of four plant groups (trees, lianas, terrestrial herbs, epiphytic liverworts) and eight animal groups (birds, butterflies, lower canopy ants, lower canopy beetles, dung beetles, bees, wasps, and the parasitoids of the latter two) at 15 ...

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“…For each surrogate, we constructed a curve called a surrogacy curve using the SURROGACY software package [29,30]. A surrogacy curve is a generalization of a species accumulation curve that lists how the number of threatened species increases as more land is selected based on a surrogate [23].…”

Section: (D) Modelling Environmental Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific morphological and genetic variation of common species predicts ranges of threatened ones

Fuller

Thomassen

Peralvo³

et al. 2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Predicting where threatened species occur is useful for making informed conservation decisions. However, because they are usually rare, surveying threatened species is often expensive and time intensive. Here, we show how regions where common species exhibit high genetic and morphological divergence among populations can be used to predict the occurrence of species of conservation concern. Intraspecific variation of common species of birds, bats and frogs from Ecuador were found to be a significantly better predictor for the occurrence of threatened species than suites of environmental variables or the occurrence of amphibians and birds. Fully 93 per cent of the threatened species analysed had their range adequately represented by the geographical distribution of the morphological and genetic variation found in seven common species. Both higher numbers of threatened species and greater genetic and morphological variation of common species occurred along elevation gradients. Higher levels of intraspecific divergence may be the result of disruptive selection and/or introgression along gradients. We suggest that collecting data on genetic and morphological variation in common species can be a cost effective tool for conservation planning, and that future biodiversity inventories include surveying genetic and morphological data of common species whenever feasible.

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Birds as surrogates for biodiversity: An analysis of a data set from southern Québec

Cited by 77 publications

References 21 publications

Influence of exurban development on bird species richness and diversity

Influence of exurban development on bird species richness and diversity

Alpha and beta diversity of plants and animals along a tropical land‐use gradient

Intraspecific morphological and genetic variation of common species predicts ranges of threatened ones

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