Response of birds to landscape matrix in fragmented forests in Jamaica
Christina
Marie
Kennedy, University of Maryland, cmk6@umd.edu
(Presenting)
Maile
Neel, University of Maryland, mneel@umd.edu
William
Fagan, University of Maryland, bfagan@umd.edu
Peter
Marra, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, marrap@umd.edu
Ruth
Defries, University of Maryland, rdefries@umd.edu
We examined how resident bird communities and different foraging guilds are affected by vegetation structure, patch area, patch isolation, and landscape context (i.e., matrix) in the wet limestone forests in Jamaica. Over 400 point counts were conducted within the forest and matrix of three types of fragmented landscapes - agriculture, bauxite mining, and urban - as well as intact forest. We found that communities within forested landscapes were significantly different than agriculture, bauxite, and urban (p<0.002); and agricultural patches were significantly different than urban (p<0.003) and bauxite (p<0.03). The variance in community composition was not strongly correlated with patch-level variables or within-patch vegetation, but rather by species abundance within the matrix. Nectarivores, ominivores and frugivores were least sensitive to forest fragmentation and actually thrived, particularly in urban areas, where they were abundant within the matrix. Insectivores were the most sensitive to forest fragmentation, with significantly lower abundances in urban and bauxite than agricultural and forested landscapes (p<0.01), and were largely absent within the matrix. All three fragmented landscapes displayed a significant richness-area relationship. Agricultural landscapes had the strongest richness relationship with patch size (R2: 0.71), as compared to bauxite (R2: 0.58), and urban (R2: 0.18). Urban landscapes exhibited the weakest species-area relationship, with the least amount of variance explained by patch area, attributed to the fact that urban areas provide additional resources (i.e., gardens) surrounding forest fragments as compared to agricultural and bauxite landscapes. In contrast, only bauxite landscapes displayed a significant richness-isolation relationship (p<0.01), thus, supporting that corridors in agricultural landscapes and garden plots in urban landscapes are potentially aiding dispersal among forest remnants.