Movements of neotropical understory passerines affected by anthropogenic forest edges in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest

2008
Edge effectsare suggested to have great impact on the persistence of species in fragmented landscapes. We tested edge avoidance by forest understory passerinesin the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest and also compared their mobility and movement patterns in contiguous and fragmented landscapes to assess whether movements would increase in the fragmented landscape. Between 2003 and 2005, 96 Chiroxiphia caudata, 38 Pyriglena leucopteraand 27 Sclerurus scansorwere radio-tracked. The most strictly forest species C. caudataand S. scansor avoided forest edges, while P. leucopterashowed affinities for the edge. Both sensitive species showed larger mean step length and maximal observed daily distance in the fragmented forest versus the unfragmented forest. P. leucopteradid not show any significant difference. There were no significant differences in proportional daily home rangeuse for any of the three species. Our results suggested that fragmentation and the consequent increase in edge areas do influence movement behavior of sensitive forest understorybirds that avoided the use of edges and increased the speed and distance they covered daily. For the most restricted forest species, it would be advisable to protect larger patches of forest instead of many small or medium fragments connected by narrow corridors. However, by comparing our data with that obtained earlier, we concluded that movement behavior of resident birds differs from that of dispersing birds and might not allow to infer functional connectivity or landscape-scale sensitivity to fragmentation; a fact that should be taken into consideration when suggesting conservation strategies.
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