Combining plant and bird data increases the accuracy of an Index of Biotic Integrity to assess conservation levels of tropical forest fragments

Medeiros, Hugo Reis; Bochio, Gabriela Menezes; Ribeiro, Milton Cézar; Torezan, José Marcelo Domingues; Anjos, Luiz dos

doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2015.01.008

Cited by 16 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…For instance, Medeiros et al. () found that an integrated plant and bird index were more accurate in estimating ecological integrity within tropical forest fragments. Not surprisingly, our findings illustrate how BCI scores influenced by stochasticity in species' population dynamics vary both spatially and temporally (e.g., interannual variation) among parks we sampled.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using regional bird community dynamics to evaluate ecological integrity within national parks

Ladin

Higgins

Schmit³

et al. 2016

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Understanding how biological communities respond to global change is important for the conservation of functioning ecosystems as anthropogenic environmental threats increase. National parks within the United States provide unique ecological and cultural resources that can help conserve biodiversity and maintain ecological integrity, especially in heavily urbanized environments. Parks within the National Capital Region (NCRN) and Mid-Atlantic (MIDN) Networks, representing federally protected areas located within a mixed landscape of rural to urban areas, have been monitoring forest and grassland birds annually to evaluate long-term trends in bird community dynamics. Given increasing rates of decline in forest-and grassland-breeding songbirds in North America, understanding community-level trends in parks will help their preservation for future generations. We used point count data collected between 2007 and 2015 from 640 sampling locations to calculate a bird community index (BCI) to infer relative estimates of ecological integrity. Our objectives were to (1) quantify BCI in 17 national parks in the mid-Atlantic region, (2) test for relationships between BCI and the proportion of forest and developed land cover types, (3) assess temporal variation in BCI, and (4) additionally test for differences in estimates of species detection probability between volunteer citizen scientists and paid observers. Mean BCI scores and ecological integrity ranks among parks ranged between 33.5 (low integrity) and 58.3 (high integrity), while the majority of parks had BCI scores ranging between 40.1 and 52.0 (medium integrity). For both networks, we found that BCI was positively related to the extent of forest cover, and for NCRN, the more heavily urbanized network, we found that BCI was negatively related to developed land cover. Assessment of temporal changes in BCI within parks indicated that BCI was stable for 12 parks, increased in four parks, and decreased in one park within our study. Lastly, we detected no differences in species detection probability between citizen scientist-and paid observer-collected data which lends support for the future comparison of bird monitoring data in regional analyses across NPS I&M Networks. The continued evaluation of ecological integrity, through measuring bird community dynamics at regional scales, is important for conserving biological diversity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using regional bird community dynamics to evaluate ecological integrity within national parks

Ladin

Higgins

Schmit³

et al. 2016

Ecosphere

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“…The final chemical health assessment of the stream at each site was evaluated after obtaining the total score. It led to a final categorization from excellent (31)(32)(33)(34)(35), good (25)(26)(27)(28)(29), fair (19)(20)(21)(22)(23), poor (13)(14)(15)(16)(17), and very poor (07-11).…”

Section: Modified Multi-metric Water Pollution Index (Wpi)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Stream Health Evaluation Using a Combined Approach of Multi-Metric Chemical Pollution and Biological Integrity Models

Atique

2018

Water

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Bouchung Stream is a large tributary of the Geum River watershed that is simultaneously affected by wastewater treatment plant effluents and agricultural activities in the watershed area. The focal subject was to diagnose the chemical and biological health of the temperate stream by using a combined approach of the multi-metric water pollution index (WPI) and the index of biological integrity (IBI KR ), using datasets from 2008-2014. Water chemistry analyses indicated seasonal and inter-annual variations mainly linked to the intensity of monsoon rainfall in the watershed, potentially causing the availability of agricultural runoff water. The main events of phosphorus inflow and nitrogen dilutions occurred during July-August. Temporal and spatial heterogeneities were observed and were largely recognizable due to nutrient enrichment and organic matter intensification. Chlorophyll showed weak linear relation to total phosphorus (R 2 = 0.17) but no relation to total nitrogen (p > 0.05). Fish compositions analyzed as trophic/tolerance guilds in relation to water chemistry showed visible decline and modifications. Average WPI site scores ranged from 33-23, indicating an excellent upstream to fair downstream water quality status. Correspondingly, IBI KR scores ranged between 38-28 approximating with WPI site classification, as well as both indices showed higher regression relation (R 2 = 0.90). Fish guild analyses revealed tolerant and omnivore species dominating the downstream, while sensitive and insectivores depleting in approximation with changing water chemistry and was confirmed by the principal component analysis. In addition, the fish guilds meticulously responded to phosphorus inflows. In conclusion, overall stream health and water chemistry analyses indicated continuous chemical and biological degradation influencing the trophic and tolerance fish guilds. Moreover, the combined application approach of WPI and IBI KR could help in better understanding the chemical and biological mechanisms in rivers and streams.

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“…In previous studies, we have shown that the area of forest fragments positively influences bird species richness in a fragmented landscape of northern Paraná in southern Brazil, with more accentuated influence on sensitive species (Anjos, 2006;Anjos, Bochio, Campos, McCrate, & Palomino, 2009;Medeiros, Bochio, Ribeiro, Torezan, & Anjos, 2015). Here, we used point count survey data to investigate the diversity of generalist and specialist bird species and shifts in their traits between primary continuous forest and fragmented landscape, in the same region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights on the functional composition of specialist and generalist birds throughout continuous and fragmented forests

Anjos

Bochio

Medeiros

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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A decline in species number often occurs after forest fragmentation and habitat loss, which usually results in the loss of ecological functions and a reduction in functional diversity in the forest fragments. However, it is uncertain whether these lost ecological functions are consistently maintained throughout continuous forests, and so the importance of these functions in continuous forests remains unknown. Point counts were used to assess both the taxonomic and functional diversity of specialist and generalist birds from sampling in a continuous primary forest compared with forest fragments in order to investigate the responses of these groups to forest fragmentation. We also measured alpha and beta diversity. The responses of specialists and generalists were similar when we assessed all bird species but were different when only passerines were considered. When examining passerines we found lower total taxonomic beta diversity for specialists than for generalists in the continuous forest, while taxonomic beta diversity was higher in the fragmented forest and similar between bird groups. However, total functional beta‐diversity values indicated clearly higher trait regularity in continuous forest for specialists and higher trait regularity in fragments for generalists. Specialists showed significantly higher functional alpha diversity in comparison with generalists in the continuous forest, while both groups showed similar values in fragments. In passerines, species richness and alpha functional diversity of both specialist and generalist were explained by forest connectivity; but, only fragment size explained those parameters for specialist passerines. We suggest that considering subsets of the community with high similarity among species, as passerines, provides a better tool for understanding responses to forest fragmentation. Due to the regularity of specialists in continuous forest, their lost could highly affect functionality in forest fragments.

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Combining plant and bird data increases the accuracy of an Index of Biotic Integrity to assess conservation levels of tropical forest fragments

Cited by 16 publications

References 49 publications

Using regional bird community dynamics to evaluate ecological integrity within national parks

Using regional bird community dynamics to evaluate ecological integrity within national parks

Stream Health Evaluation Using a Combined Approach of Multi-Metric Chemical Pollution and Biological Integrity Models

Insights on the functional composition of specialist and generalist birds throughout continuous and fragmented forests

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