Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T17:09:54.143Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Forest corridors facilitate movement of tropical forest birds after experimental translocations in a fragmented Neotropical landscape in Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2011

Ana Ibarra-Macias ,
W. Douglas Robinson  and
Michael S. Gaines
Ana Ibarra-Macias*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33124USA
W. Douglas Robinson
Affiliation:
Oak Creek Lab of Biology, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, 104 Nash Hall, Corvallis, Oregon 97331USA
Michael S. Gaines
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33124USA
*
1Corresponding author. Email: ibarraana@hotmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

We evaluated effects of corridors between forest fragments surrounded by pastures in tropical Mexico. We used experimental translocations and capture–recapture data to measure the proportion of birds returning and time to return after translocation between connected and unconnected patches (five replicates for each treatment). Depending on each species’ degree of forest dependence (forest-restricted and forest-unrestricted species), we assigned birds to two groups to evaluate influence of species characteristics on effects of corridors on movement. Birds translocated between connected patches (n = 75) were seven times more likely to be recaptured in their original capture site when compared with birds translocated between unconnected patches (n = 109). Effects differed among the two species groups. In the presence of corridors, 46% of forest-unrestricted birds returned to the capture site while only 5% returned between unconnected patches. Forest-restricted birds showed similar results, but were only twice as likely to return to a connected capture site. Birds translocated between unconnected patches took longer to return than birds translocated between connected patches. The strong positive effect of corridors on movement, even for forest-unrestricted species, suggests that forested corridors facilitate bird movement and help maintain connectivity even in this highly fragmented landscape.

Keywords

bird movementconnectivitydispersalforest fragmentationMexicoPalenque National Parktropical forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 27 , Issue 5 , September 2011 , pp. 547 - 556
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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

AOU (AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION). 1998. Check-list of North American Birds. (Seventh edition). American Ornithologists’ Union. Washington, DC. 829 pp.Google Scholar
AWADE, M. & METZGER, J. P. 2008. Using gap-crossing capacity to evaluate functional connectivity of two Atlantic rainforest birds and their response to fragmentation. Austral Ecology 33:863–871.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BELISLE, M. 2005. Measuring landscape connectivity: the challenge of behavioral landscape ecology. Ecology 86:1988–1995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BELISLE, M. & DESROCHERS, A. 2002. Gap-crossing decisions by forest birds: an empirical basis for parameterizing spatially-explicit, individual-based models. Landscape Ecology 17:219–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BELISLE, M., DESROCHERS, A. & FORTIN, M.-J. 2001. Influence of forest cover on the movements of forest birds: a homing experiment. Ecology 82:1893–1904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BOSCOLO, D., CANDIA-GALLARDO, C., AWADE, M. & METZGER, J. P. 2008. Importance on interhabitat gaps and stepping-stones for Lesser woodcreepers (Xiphorhynchus fuscus) in the Atlantic forest, Brazil. Biotropica 40:273–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CASTELLON, T. D. & SIEVING, K. E. 2006. An experimental test of matrix permeability and corridor use by an endemic understory bird. Conservation Biology 20:135–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
COX, D. R. 1972. Regression models and life-tables. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B–Statistical Methodology 34:187–220.Google Scholar
DIAZ-GALLEGOS, J. R. 1996. Estructura y composicion floristica de la vegetacion del Parque Nacional “Zona Arqueologica” de Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico. M.Sc. thesis, Biology Department. Universidad Juarez Autonoma de Tabasco. Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico.Google Scholar
ESTRADA, A. & COATES-ESTRADA, R. 1997. Anthropogenic landscape changes and avian diversity at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Biodiversity and Conservation 6:19–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FLEISHMAN, E., RAY, C., SJOGREN-GULVE, P., BOGGS, C. L. & MURPHY, D. D. 2002. Assessing the roles of patch quality, area, and isolation in predicting metapopulation dynamics. Conservation Biology 16:706–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GAUNT, A. S. & ORING, L. W. (eds.) 1997. Guidelines to the use of wild birds in research. The Ornithological Council, Washington, DC. 66 pp.Google Scholar
GILLIES, C. S. & ST. CLAIR, C. C. 2008. Riparian corridors enhance movement of a forest specialist bird in fragmented tropical forest. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105:19774–19779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GOBEIL, J.-F. & VILLARD, M.-A. 2002. Permeability of three boreal forest landscape types to bird movements as determined from experimental translocations. Oikos 98:447–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GRAHAM, C. H. & BLAKE, J. G. 2001. Influence of patch- and landscape-level factors on bird assemblages in a fragmented tropical landscape. Ecological Applications 11:1709–1721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HADLEY, A. S. & BETTS, M. G. 2009. Tropical deforestation alters hummingbird movement patterns. Biology Letters 5:207–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
HOLDRIDGE, L. R., GRENKE, W. C., HATHAWAY, W. H., LIANG, T. & TOSI, J. A. 1971. Forest environments in tropical life zones: a pilot study. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 747 pp.Google Scholar
HOWELL, S. N. G. & WEBB, S. 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. (First edition). Oxford University Press, New York. 851 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IBARRA-MACIAS, A. 2009. Effects of habitat fragmentation on the distribution and movement of tropical forest birds. Ph.D. thesis, Biology Department, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida.Google Scholar
IBARRA-MACIAS, A., ROBINSON, W. D. & GAINES, M. S. 2011. Experimental evaluation of bird movements in a fragmented Neotropical landscape. Biological Conservation 144:703–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JOHNS, A. D. 1991. Responses of Amazonian rain forest birds to habitat modification. Journal of Tropical Ecology 7:417–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KENNEDY, C. M. & MARRA, P. P. 2010. Matrix mediates avian movements in tropical forested landscapes: inference from experimental translocations. Biological Conservation 143:2136–2145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LAURANCE, S. G. & GOMEZ, M. S. 2005. Clearing width and movements of understory rainforest birds. Biotropica 37:147–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LEES, A. C. & PERES, C. A. 2009. Gap-crossing movements predict species occupancy in Amazonian forest fragments. Oikos 118:280–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MOORE, R. P., ROBINSON, W. D., LOVETTE, I. J. & ROBINSON, T. R. 2008. Experimental evidence for extreme dispersal limitation in tropical forest birds. Ecology Letters 11:960–968.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
OVASKAINEN, O. & HANSKI, I. 2004. From individual behavior to metapopulation dynamics: unifying the patchy population and classic metapopulation models. American Naturalist 164:364–377.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
ROBINSON, W. D., BRAWN, J. D. & ROBINSON, S. K. 2000. Forest bird community structure in central Panama: influence of spatial scale and biogeography. Ecological Monographs 70:209–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SEKERCIOGLU, C. H. 2009. Tropical ecology: riparian corridors connect fragmented forest bird populations. Current Biology 19:R210–R213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SHIRLEY, S. M. 2006. Movement of forest birds across river and clearcut edges of varying riparian buffer strip widths. Forest Ecology and Management 223:190–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ST. CLAIR, C. C. 2003. Comparative permeability of roads, rivers, and meadows to songbirds in Banff National Park. Conservation Biology 17:1151–1160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ST. CLAIR, C. C., BELISLE, M., DESROCHERS, A. & HANNON, S. J. 1998. Winter responses of forest birds to habitat corridors and gaps. Conservation Ecology 2:13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
STRATFORD, J. A. & ROBINSON, W. D. 2005. Gulliver travels to the fragmented tropics: geographic variation in mechanisms of avian extinction. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 3:91–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VAN DYCK, H. & BAGUETTE, M. 2005. Dispersal behaviour in fragmented landscapes: routine or special movements? Basic and Applied Ecology 6:535–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ZOLLNER, P. A. & LIMA, S. L. 2005. Behavioral tradeoffs when dispersing across a patchy landscape. Oikos 108:219–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar