Landscape perception by forest understory birds in the Atlantic Rainforest: black-and-white versus shades of grey
2010
Even among forest specialists, species-specific responses to anthropogenic
forest fragmentationmay vary considerably. Some appear to be confined to forest interiors, and perceive a fragmented landscape as a mosaic of suitable fragments and hostile matrix. Others, however, are able to make use of matrix habitats and perceive the landscape in shades of grey rather than black-and-white. We analysed data of 42
Chiroxiphia
caudata(
Blue Manakin), 10
Pyriglena leucoptera(White-shouldered
Fire-eye) and 19
Sclerurus scansor(
Rufous-breasted Leaftosser) radio-tracked in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil between 2003 and 2005. We illustrate how habitat preferences may determine how species respond to or perceive the landscape structure. We compared available with used habitat to develop a species-specific preference index for each of six habitat classes. All three species preferred old forest, but relative use of other classes differed significantly. S. scansor perceived great contrast between old forest and matrix, whereas the other two species perceived greater habitat continuity. For
conservation planning, our study offers three important messages: (1) some forest specialist species are able to persist in highly fragmented landscapes; (2) some forest species may be able to make use of different anthropogenic habitat types to various degrees; whereas (3) others are restricted to the remaining
forest fragments. Our study suggests species most confined to forest interiors to be considered as potential
umbrella speciesfor
landscape-scale conservationplanning.
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