Changing bird communities of an agricultural landscape: declines in arboreal foragers, increases in large species

Glen Bain; Michael A. MacDonald; Rowena Hamer; Riana Gardiner; Christopher N. Johnson; Menna E Jones

doi:10.1098/rsos.200076

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Changing bird communities of an agricultural landscape: declines in arboreal foragers, increases in large species

Journal article

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Changing bird communities of an agricultural landscape: declines in arboreal foragers, increases in large species

Glen Bain, Michael A. MacDonald, Rowena Hamer, Riana Gardiner, Christopher N. Johnson and Menna E Jones

Royal Society Open Science, Vol.7(3), pp.1-20

2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200076

PMID: 32269823

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Abstract

agricultural intensification

avian declines

ecological restoration

land-use change

life-history traits

woodland birds

Birds are declining in agricultural landscapes around the world. The causes of these declines can be better understood by analysing change in groups of species that share life-history traits. We investigated how land-use change has affected birds of the Tasmanian Midlands, one of Australia's oldest agricultural landscapes and a focus of habitat restoration. We surveyed birds at 72 sites, some of which were previously surveyed in 1996-1998, and tested relationships of current patterns of abundance and community composition to landscape and patch-level environmental characteristics. Fourth-corner modelling showed strong negative responses of aerial foragers and exotics to increasing woodland cover; arboreal foragers were positively associated with projective foliage cover; and small-bodied species were reduced by the presence of a hyperaggressive species of native honeyeater, the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala). Analysis of change suggests increases in large-bodied granivorous or carnivorous birds and declines in some arboreal foragers and nectarivores. Changes in species richness were best explained by changes in noisy miner abundance and levels of surrounding woodland cover. We encourage restoration practitioners to trial novel planting configurations that may confer resistance to invasion by noisy miners, and a continued long-term monitoring effort to reveal the effects of future land-use change on Tasmanian birds.

Details

Title: Changing bird communities of an agricultural landscape: declines in arboreal foragers, increases in large species
Authors: Glen Bain (Corresponding Author) - University of Tasmania
Michael A. MacDonald - Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Rowena Hamer - University of Tasmania
Riana Gardiner - University of Tasmania
Christopher N. Johnson - University of Tasmania
Menna E Jones - University of Tasmania
Publication details: Royal Society Open Science, Vol.7(3), pp.1-20
Publisher: The Royal Society Publishing
Date published: 2020
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.200076
ISSN: 2054-5703
PMID: 32269823
Copyright note: © 2020 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: Datasets used in this study are available through figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.9192485. Bird survey data has been uploaded to the Natural Values Atlas of Tasmania.
Grants: Restoring resilience in wildlife populations, LP130100949, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
Keystone effects of Australia's top predators: dingoes, devils and biodiversity, DP110103069, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
Interpreting biological sequence information: untangling hybridisation, FT100100031, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
Organisation Unit: School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991043198402621
Output Type: Journal article