Avian diversity in agroscapes in Nicaragua's north highlands

作者：Arendt Wayne J^*; Torrez Marvin; Vilchez Sergio

来源：Ornitologia Neotropical, 2012, 23(1): 113-131.

• Avian diversity
• cloud forest
• coffee plantations
• conservation
• forest edge
• landscape
• Nicaragua

Avian diversity in agroscapes in Nicaragua's north highlands. - Nicaragua's highland forests are threatened by continual wood extraction and encroaching agriculture. Still, the effects of forest loss and fragmentation on avian communities remain little known. We used fixed-width point counts (distance sampling: 4843 detections during 86 h of observation) to characterize bird assemblages in agroforestry systems under five land uses (secondary and riparian forest, forest fallow, coffee plantations, and 'open lands', e.g., grass- and pasturelands with scattered trees) in three landscapes of Nicaragua highlands. Land use differences were significant: species richness and abundance were higher in coffee plantations and forest fallows, whereas disturbance-sensitive species were more abundant in secondary and riparian forest. Species and foraging guilds characteristic of closed-canopy forest were found in coffee plantations, but only at points near forest remnants.

• 出版日期2012