Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T07:29:41.971Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Responses of Amazonian rain forest birds to habitat modification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Andrew D. Johns
Affiliation:
Departamento Zoologia, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Pará, Brazil

Abstract

Bird species were surveyed in a variety of habitat types in a lightly populated area of western Brazilian Amazonia. Habitats surveyed were untagged forest, selectively logged forest, ‘capoeira’ (scrub regenerating on cleared land), cropfields, and an isolated 35 ha forest ‘island’. All habitats were within a few kilometres of each other. Many bird species were found to occur in all or most habitats, although the similarlity of the species assemblages dropped with increasing levels of disturbance of the natural vegetation. Certain understorey insectivores common in untagged forest were rarely observed in other habitats; disturbed areas contained higher numbers of flycalching insectivores or birds feeding on both insects and fruit, some of which were open-country rather than forest species. The avifauna of the forest ‘island’ was more similar to that of regenerating scrub than to that of tall forest, and the persistence of forest species was attributed to their ability to move to and from nearby continuous forest areas.

Resumo

Levantamentos da avifauna de uma variedade de tipos de habitats foram conduzidos numa área de baixa densidade populacional da Amazônia Brasilcira ocidental. Habitats Icvanlados incluiram mata primária, meta com corte seletivo, capoeira, agro-mosaicos, e uma ‘ilha’ de mata dc 35-ha, os quais ocuparam uma área de 15 km2. Muitas espécics de aves ocorram na maioria ou todos os tipos de habitats, mas a semelhança do conjunto, de espécies diminuiu com o aumento do nível de perlurbação da vegetacao. Cerlos insertívoros de sub-bosque comuns em mala primária foram raramente obscrvados em oulros habitats; áreas perturbadas continham um núimero maior de espécies predando em insetos alados ou alimentando-se de frutos c insetos, algumas das quais cram lipicas de habitats abertos ao inves dc mata. A avifauna da ilha de mata foi mais scmclhante a de capocira do que a de mata alta, e a persistencia das especies de mata foi atribuida a capacidade dessas especies de se deslocar da mata continua á habitats adjaccntcs a vice-e-versa.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Bell, H. L. 1982. A bird communily of lowland rainforest in New Guinea. 1. Composition and density of the avifauna. Emu 82:2441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bierregaard, R. O. Jr 1986. Changes in bird communities in virgin forest and isolated Amazonian forest fragments. Ibis 128:166167.Google Scholar
Connell, J. H. 1978. Diversity in tropical forest and coral reefs. Science 199:13021310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cruden, R. W. & Toledo, V. M. 1977. Oriole pollination of Erythrina brevifiora: evidence for a polytypic view of ornithology. Plant Systematics and Evolution 126:393403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, J. M. 1973. Distributional ecology of New Guinea birds. Science 179:759769.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Driscoll, P. V. & Kikkawa, J. 1989. Bird species diversity of lowland tropical rainforests of New Guinea and Northern Australia. Pp. 123–152 in Harmelin-Vivien, M. L. & Bourliere, F. (eds). Vertebratesin complex tropical systems. Springer-Verlag, New York. 200 pp.Google Scholar
Ewel, J. & Conde, L. 1976. Potential ecological impact of increased intensity of tropical forest utilization. Unpublished report to U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Madison, Wisconsin. 115 pp.Google Scholar
Feinsinger, P. 1976. Organization of a tropical guild of nectarivorous birds. Ecological Monographs 46:257291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frith, C. B. & Frith, D. W. 1985. Seasonality of insect abundance in an Australian upland tropical rainforest. Australian Journal of Ecology 10:237248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, R. 1981. The abundance and seasonality of forest canopy birds on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Biotropka 13:241251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horn, H. S. 1966. Measurement of overlap in comparative ecological studies. American Naturalist 100:419424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D. H. 1973. Sweep samples of tropical foliage insects: effects of season, vegetation types, elevation, time of day, and insularity. Ecology 54:686708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johns, A. D. 1985. Selective logging and wildlife conservation in tropical rain forest: problems and recommendations. Biological Conservation 31:355375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johns, A. D. 1986. Effects of selective logging on the ecological organization of a peninsular Malaysian rain forest avifauna. Forktail 1:6579.Google Scholar
Johns, A. D. 1988. Economic development and wildlife conservation in Brazilian Amazonia. Ambio 17: 302306.Google Scholar
Johns, A. D. 1989. Recovery of a peninsular Malaysian rain forest avifauna following selective limber logging: the first twelve years. Forktail 4:89105.Google Scholar
Johns, A. D. 1991. Differential use of unlogged forest, logged forest and cultivated mosaic in a western Amazonian primate community. Pp. 115–135 in Box, H. O. (ed). Primate responses to environmental change. Chapman & Hall, London. 442 pp.Google Scholar
Kapos, V. 1989. Effects of isolation on the water status of forest patches in the Brazilian Amazon. Journal of Tropical Ecology 5:173185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karr, J. R. 1980. Geographical variation in the avifaunas of tropical forest undergrowth. The Auk 97:283298.Google Scholar
Karr, J. R. & Freemark, K. E. 1983. Habitat selection and environmental gradients: dynamics in the ‘stable’ tropics. Ecology 64:14811494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keast, A. 1985. Tropical rain forest avifaunas: an introductory conspectus. Pp. 331 in Diamond, A. W. & Lovejoy, T. E. (eds). Conservation of tropical forest birds. ICBP Technical Publication 4, Cambridge, UK. 318 pp.Google Scholar
Levins, R. 1968. Evolution in changing environments. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovejoy, T. E. 1974. Bird diversity and abundance in Amazon forest communities. The Living Bird 13:127191.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, T. E., Rankin, J. M., Bierregaard, R. O. Jr, Brown, K. S. Jr, Emmons, L. H. & Van Der Voort, M. E. 1984. Ecosystem decay in Amazon forest remnants. Pp. 295325 in Nitecki, M. H. (ed). Extinctions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 354 pp.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, T. E., Bierregaard, R. O. Jr, Rylands, A. B., Malcolm, J. R., Quintela, C. F., Harper, L. H., Brown, K. S. Jr, Powell, A. H., Powell, G. V. N., Schubart, H. O. R. & Hays, M. B. 1986. Edge and other effects of isolation on Amazon forest fragments. Pp. 257285 in Soule, M. E. (ed.). Conservation biology: the science of scarcity and diversity. Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts. 584 pp.Google Scholar
Novaes, F. C. 1980. Observacoes sobre a avifauna do alto curso do Rio Paru de Leste, Estado do Pará. Boletim Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Nora Série 100:158.Google Scholar
Nummelin, M. 1989. Seasonality and effects of forestry practices on forest floor arthropods in the Kibale Forest, Uganda. Fauna A'orvegica, Series B 36:1725.Google Scholar
Orians, G. H. 1969. The number of bird species in some tropical forests. Ecology 50:783801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peres, C. A. 1990. Primate conservation and oil extraction in Central Amazonia. Primate Eye 41:1620.Google Scholar
Ralph, C. J. 1985. Habitat association patterns of forest and steppe birds of northern Patagonia, Argentina. Condor 87:471483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remsen, J. V. Jr & Parker, T. A. III 1984. Arboreal dead-leaf searching birds of the Neotropics. Condor 86:3641.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remsen, J. V. Jr, Stiles, F. G. & Scott, P. E. 1986. Frequency of arthropods in stomachs of tropical hummingbirds. Auk 103:436441.Google Scholar
Robinson, M. H. 1969. The defensive behaviour of some orthopteriod insects from Panama. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 121:281303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sick, H. 1985. Ornilhologia Brasiliera. 2 volumes. Editora Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil.Google Scholar
Stiles, F. C. 1985. Conservation of forest birds in Costa Rica: problems and perspectives. Pp. 141168 in Diamond, A. W. & Lovejoy, T. E.Conservation of tropical forest birds. ICBP Technical Publication 4, Cambridge, UK. 318 pp.Google Scholar
Terborgh, J. W. 1986. Population densities of Amazonian birds: implications for conservation. Ibis 128:165166.Google Scholar
Terborgh, J. W. & Weske, J. S. 1969. Colonization of secondary habitats by Peruvian Birds. Ecology 50:765782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitmore, T. C. & Da Silva, J. N. M. 1990. Brazil rain forest limbers are mostly very dense. Commonwealth Forestry Review 69:8790.Google Scholar
Wilcox, B. A. 1980. Insular ecology and conservation. Pp. 95117 in Soulé, M. E. & Wilcox, B. A.Conservation Biology. Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts. 395 pp.Google Scholar
Willis, E. O. 1974. Populations and local extinctions of birds on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Ecological Monographs 44:153169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willis, E. O. 1979. The composition of avian communities in remanescent woodlots in southern Brazil. Papeis Avulsos Zoologia, Museu de Sáo Paulo 33:125.Google Scholar