The usage of bird assemblages as environmental quality indicator of forest patches in a highly agricultural landscape

• Grant number: 14/14925-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): August 11, 2014
• Effective date (End): October 10, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Hilton Thadeu Zarate do Couto
• Grantee: Eduardo Roberto Alexandrino
• Supervisor: Çağan H. Şekercioğlu
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Utah (U), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/05343-5 - Impacts of the anthropogenic landscape structure and its dynamics on bird communities, BP.DR

Abstract

Bird assemblages are commonly indicated as good ecological indicators of habitat quality. However, for patches imbedded in a highly agricultural landscape, as happens for the majority of Atlantic Forest in Brazil, few research was made in order to test the efficacy of bird assemblages as indicators. Therefore, we focused eight forest patches inserted in two typical anthropogenic landscape (pasture and sugar cane matrices), from which forest interior has different configuration and history of fragmentation, in order to identify (1) if there is significant difference among bird assemblages in different portions of the forest habitat; (2) if the bird assemblages in different portions of the forest habitat have significant relationship with true habitat quality; (3) which classical (species richness, Shannon diversity, species composition) and innovative (Index of Biotic Integrity and Functional Diversity) analysis approaches for bird assemblages can indicate the true habitat quality existing on different portions of the forest habitat. The bird assemblages of 51 spatially independent sample points of the forest patches, were one year sampled (Nov/2011- Nov/2012). We are assuming the rank of ecosystem services provisioning (Ferraz et al. 2014) for each 1 km2 of our patches, as true habitat quality reference and therefore as independent variable. The next step of this project will be the statistical analysis and the results discussion with a researcher with high expertise on forest bird species occurrence in other human-dominated landscapes on the world. We are sure that discussions will generate a paper internationally useful that will warn about the usage of bird as forest habitat quality indicator of patches in agricultural landscapes. (AU)

Scientific publications

(5)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BOVO, ALEX A. A.; FERRAZ, KATIA M. P. M. B.; MAGIOLI, MARCELO; ALEXANDRINO, EDUARDO R.; HASUI, ERICA; RIBEIRO, MILTON C.; TOBIAS, JOSEPH A.. Habitat fragmentation narrows the distribution of avian functional traits associated with seed dispersal in tropical forest. PERSPECTIVES IN ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION, v. 16, n. 2, p. 90-96, APR-JUN 2018. (13/24929-9, 14/14925-9, 14/10192-7, 11/06782-5, 14/23809-2, 10/05343-5, 14/09300-0, 13/50421-2)

ALEXANDRINO, EDUARDO ROBERTO; BUECHLEY, EVAN R.; PIRATELLI, AUGUSTO JOAO; MICCHI DE BARROS FERRAZ, KATIA MARIA PASCHOALETTO; MORAL, RAFAEL DE ANDRADE; SEKERCIOGLU, CAGAN H.; SILVA, WESLEY RODRIGUES; ZARATE DO COUTO, HILTON THADEU. Bird sensitivity to disturbance as an indicator of forest patch conditions: An issue in environmental assessments. ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS, v. 66, p. 369-381, JUL 2016. (14/14925-9, 10/05343-5, 11/06782-5)

NAGY-REIS, MARIANA; OSHIMA, JULIA EMI DE FARIA; KANDA, CLAUDIA ZUKERAN; PALMEIRA, FRANCESCA BELEM LOPES; DE MELO, FABIANO RODRIGUES; MORATO, RONALDO GONCALVES; BONJORNE, LILIAN; MAGIOLI, MARCELO; LEUCHTENBERGER, CAROLINE; ROHE, FABIO; et al. NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics. ECOLOGY, v. 101, n. 11, NOV 2020. (14/01986-0, 12/14245-2, 10/05343-5, 13/50421-2, 06/04878-7, 17/21816-0, 05/00405-4, 13/24453-4, 15/22844-1, 13/07162-6, 15/19439-8, 16/11595-3, 19/04851-1, 15/18381-6, 13/04957-8, 14/23095-0, 14/09300-0, 11/06782-5, 15/17739-4, 11/22449-4, 14/23132-2, 14/10192-7, 12/00534-2, 14/14925-9)

ALEXANDRINO, EDUARDO ROBERTO; BUECHLEY, EVAN R.; KARR, JAMES R.; DE BARROS FERRAZ, KATIA MARIA PASCHOALETTO MICCHI; DE BARROS FERRAZ, SILVIO FROSINI; DO COUTO, HILTON THADEU ZARATE; SEKERCIOGLU, CAGAN H.. Bird based Index of Biotic Integrity: Assessing the ecological condition of Atlantic Forest patches in human-modified landscape. ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS, v. 73, p. 662-675, FEB 2017. (14/14925-9, 10/05343-5, 11/06782-5)

PUTTKER, THOMAS; CROUZEILLES, RENATO; ALMEIDA-GOMES, MAURICIO; SCHMOELLER, MARINA; MAURENZA, DANIEL; ALVES-PINTO, HELENA; PARDINI, RENATA; VIEIRA, MARCUS V.; BANKS-LEITE, CRISTINA; FONSECA, CARLOS R.; et al. Indirect effects of habitat loss via habitat fragmentation: A cross-taxa analysis of forest-dependent species. Biological Conservation, v. 241, JAN 2020. (14/09300-0, 05/00405-4, 14/10192-7, 06/04878-7, 08/03724-1, 11/06782-5, 04/04820-3, 14/14503-7, 13/50718-5, 11/19767-4, 08/01866-3, 13/22679-5, 14/14925-9, 99/09635-0)