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Nocturnal bird diversity in forest fragments in north-west Ecuador

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2017

Scott T. Walter Open the ORCID record for Scott T. Walter [Opens in a new window] ,
Luke Browne ,
Juan Freile ,
Nelson González ,
Julio Loor ,
Michael Darkes ,
Thomas W. Gillespie  and
Jordan Karubian
Scott T. Walter
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, 6823 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70118, USA Current address: Department of Biology, Texas State University, 601 University Dr., San Marcos, TX 78666, USA
Luke Browne
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, 6823 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70118, USA Foundation for the Conservation of the Tropical Andes, Quito, Ecuador UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Juan Freile
Affiliation:
Comité Ecuatoriano de Registros Ornitológicos, Casilla Postal 17-12-122, Quito, Ecuador
Nelson González
Affiliation:
Foundation for the Conservation of the Tropical Andes, Quito, Ecuador
Julio Loor
Affiliation:
Foundation for the Conservation of the Tropical Andes, Quito, Ecuador
Michael Darkes
Affiliation:
The University of Manchester, Faculty of Life Sciences, Carys Bannister Building, Dover Street, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Thomas W. Gillespie
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of California – Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Jordan Karubian*
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, 6823 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70118, USA Foundation for the Conservation of the Tropical Andes, Quito, Ecuador
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract:

Habitat preferences and response to habitat conversion remain under-studied for many groups in the tropics, limiting our understanding of how environmental and anthropogenic factors may interact to shape patterns of diversity. To help fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed nocturnal birds such as owls, nightjars and potoos through auditory transect surveys in 22 forest fragments (2.7 to 33.6 ha) in north-west Ecuador. We assessed the relative effect of habitat characteristics (e.g. canopy height and openness, and density of large trees) and fragment attributes (e.g. area, altitude and proportion of surrounding forest cover) on species richness and community composition. Based on our previous work, we predicted that nocturnal bird richness would be highest in relatively larger fragments with more surrounding forest cover. We recorded 11 total species with an average ± SD of 3.4 ± 1.4 (range = 2–7) species per fragment, with higher richness in fragments that were larger, at lower altitudes, and characterized by more open canopies. Nocturnal bird community similarity was not significantly correlated with any measured environmental variable. These results indicate that both landscape (e.g. altitude) and fragment-specific (e.g. size, forest structure) attributes are likely to interact to shape patterns of diversity among this poorly known but ecologically important guild in fragmented tropical landscapes.

Keywords

forest fragmentslandscapeNeotropicsnightjarsnocturnal birdsowls
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 33 , Issue 6 , November 2017 , pp. 357 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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