scholarly journals Land Use Change Effects on Breeding Bird Community Composition

1999 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon C. Boren ◽  
David M. Engle ◽  
Michael W. Palmer ◽  
Ronald E. Masters ◽  
Tania Criner
Bird Study ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Baker ◽  
Rebecca L. Thomas ◽  
Stuart E. Newson ◽  
Victoria Thompson ◽  
Nick R.D. Paling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Varun ◽  
Sutirtha Dutta

AbstractThe Indian Thar desert has lost much of its grasslands over the last few decades, mainly due to land-use change from pastoralism to agriculture. Expanding croplands and intensifying grazing pressures are popularly hypothesized to be major drivers of biodiversity loss in the region. Our study aims to investigate the effects of contemporary land-use change on bird communities of the Western Thar Desert.We surveyed 58 randomly laid line transects in a c2000 sq.km study area, to quantify parameters of bird community structure in three predominant land-use types viz. protected grasslands, rangelands, and non-irrigated croplands. Fieldwork for the study was conducted in the dry season (winter and summer) between December 2018 and April 2019.During winter, overall bird richness and abundance were highest in protected grasslands followed by non-irrigated croplands and rangelands. Protected grasslands also had a higher abundance of diet and habitat specialists. Compared to protected grasslands, density was lower in non-irrigated croplands and rangelands for 35% and 10% of species, respectively. A majority of the negatively affected species were insectivorous grassland specialists.Contrary to the pattern in winter, overall bird richness, abundance, community composition, and guild structure in summer were similar across three land-use types. Only one of the 17 analysed species had lower density in modified land-use types.Overall, protected grassland was the best habitat for birds and was specifically important for specialists, particularly during the winter. Rangelands and fallow croplands sustained most generalists at comparable densities but had severe negative impacts on specialists.Synthesis and application: Our results point out that low-intensity agro-pastoral land-uses can supplement, but not replace, protected areas in conservation of Thar desert’s avifaunal diversity. Our results are consistent with the idea of managing dryland habitats as agro-grassland mosaics with embedded protected areas, in order to reconcile human needs and biodiversity conservation at a landscape scale.


Author(s):  
Gregory Martin ◽  
Chansotheary Dang ◽  
Ember Morrissey ◽  
Jason Hubbart ◽  
Elliot Kellner ◽  
...  

Abstract Freshwater ecosystems are susceptible to biodiversity losses due to land conversion. This is particularly true for the conversion of land from forests for agriculture and urban development. Freshwater sediments harbor microorganisms that provide vital ecosystem services. In dynamic habitats like freshwater sediments, microbial communities can be shaped by many processes, although the relative contributions of environmental factors to microbial community dynamics remain unclear. Given the future projected increase in land use change, it is important to ascertain how associated changes in stream physico-chemistry will influence sediment microbiomes. Here, we characterized stream chemistry and sediment bacterial community composition along a mixed land-use gradient in West Virginia, USA across one growing season. Sediment bacterial community richness was unaffected by increasing anthropogenic land use, though microbial communities were compositionally distinct across sites. Community threshold analysis revealed greater community resilience to agricultural land use than urban land use. Further, predicted metagenomes suggest differences in potential microbial function across changes in land use. The results of this study suggest that low levels of urban land use change can alter sediment bacterial community composition and predicted functional capacity in a mixed-use watershed, which could impact stream ecosystem services in the face of global land use change.


2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICOLE LEMOINE ◽  
HANS-GÜNTHER BAUER ◽  
MARKUS PEINTINGER ◽  
KATRIN BÖHNING-GAESE

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