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Published on: July 21, 2016
Bird community response to fruit energy.
Valerie E Peters1, Rua Mordecai, C Ronald Carroll
1Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. vale@uga.edu
The Journal of Animal Ecology
|May 7, 2010
Summary
Fruit energy availability significantly impacts bird species richness and persistence in tropical coffee landscapes. Higher fruit energy availability supports more species and aids avian population stability, crucial for conservation.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Ornithology
- Conservation Biology
Background:
- Tropical habitats exhibit high animal species richness, often attributed to abundant and predictable food resources.
- Quantifying the precise relationship between food resource qualities and species richness is challenging due to ecosystem heterogeneity.
- Previous fruit-frugivore studies often used simple fruit counts and overlooked detection probability, limiting community-level insights.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of fruit resource abundance and quality on bird species richness in a managed tropical landscape.
- To develop and apply novel methods for accurately assessing fruit resources and bird community dynamics.
- To understand the drivers of site occupancy, immigration, and emigration in resident bird assemblages.
Main Methods:
- Utilized uniform, one-hectare shade-grown coffee plots as replicated experimental units.
- Employed multi-season occupancy modeling to account for detection probability in analyzing bird assemblage dynamics.
- Expanded the measure of fruit abundance to Fruit Energy Availability (FEA), incorporating fruit size and quality alongside counts.
Main Results:
- A strong positive correlation (0.90) was found between average monthly FEA and average bird species richness per site.
- Multi-season occupancy models indicated that FEA significantly influenced initial occupancy, immigration, emigration, and detection rates.
- 92% of the model weight supported a model where FEA affected these key ecological parameters.
Conclusions:
- Fruit energy availability is a critical factor influencing neotropical bird community richness.
- FEA fluctuations explain significant variation in site occupancy patterns for resident bird species.
- Fruit resource abundance and constancy are vital for supporting species richness and avian persistence in managed landscapes, informing conservation strategies.
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