Avian functional responses to landscape recovery
- Authors: Ikin, Karen , Barton, Philip , Blanchard, Wade , Crane, Mason , Stein, John , Lindenmayer, David
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Vol. 286, no. 1901 (2019), p.
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- Description: Restoring native vegetation in agricultural landscapes can reverse biodiversity declines via species gains. Depending on whether the traits of colonizers are complementary or redundant to the assemblage, species gains can increase the efficiency or stability of ecological functions, yet detecting these processes is not straightforward.We propose a new conceptual model to identify potential changes to complementarity and redundancy in response to landscape change via relative changes in taxonomic and functional richness.We applied our model to a 14-year study of birds across an extensive agricultural region. We found compelling evidence that high levels of landscape-scale tree cover and patch-scale restoration were significant determinants of functional change in the overall bird assemblage. This was true for every one of the six traits investigated individually, indicating increased trait-specific functional complementarity and redundancy in the assemblage. Applying our conceptual model to species diversity data provided new insights into how the return of vertebrates to restored landscapes may affect ecological function. © 2019 The Author(s).
Long-term bird colonization and turnover in restored woodlands
- Authors: Lindenmayer, David , Lane, P. , Barton, Philip , Crane, Mason , Ikin, Karen
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Biodiversity and Conservation Vol. 25, no. 8 (2016), p. 1587-1603
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- Description: The long-term effectiveness of restored areas for biodiversity is poorly known for the majority of restored ecosystems worldwide. We quantified temporal changes in bird occurrence in restoration plantings of different ages and geometries, and compared observed patterns with a reference dataset from woodland remnants on the same farms as our plantings. Over time, bird species richness remained unchanged in spring but exhibited modest increases in winter. We found that wider plantings supported significantly greater bird species richness in spring and winter than narrow plantings. There was no evidence of a significant interaction between planting width and time. We recorded major temporal changes in the occurrence of a range of individual species that indicated a clear turnover of species as plantings matured. Our results further revealed marked differences in individual species occurrence between plantings and woodland remnants. Life-history attributes associated with temporal changes in the bird assemblage were most apparent in winter survey data, and included diet, foraging and nesting patterns, movement behaviour (e.g. migratory vs. dispersive), and body size. Differences in bird assemblages between plantings of different ages suggest that it is important that farms support a range of age classes of planted woodland, if the aim is to maximize the number of native bird species in restored areas. Our data also suggest that changes in the bird species occupying plantings of different ages can be anticipated in a broadly predictable way based on planting geometry (especially width) and key life-history attributes, particularly movement patterns and habitat and diet specialisation. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Philip Barton” is provided in this record**