Winter Bird Diversity and Community Structure in Relation to Shrub Cover and Invasive Exotic Natal Grass in Two Livestock Ranches in the Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico

Author:

Titulaer Mieke1,Aragón Gurrola Cielo Marisol1,Melgoza Castillo Alicia1ORCID,Camargo-Sanabria Angela A.2ORCID,Hernández-Quiroz Nathalie S.1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Facultad de Zootecnia y Ecología, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Chihuahua 31453, Mexico

2. Consejo Nacional de Humanidades, Ciencias y Tecnologías (CONAHCYT), Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Chihuahua 31453, Mexico

Abstract

Grasslands are one of the most threatened terrestrial biomes leading to a loss of grassland biodiversity, including birds. Here, we studied the wintering grassland bird diversity and community structure in two private livestock ranches in the Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico. We explored how bird communities are related to vegetation structure, including shrub cover and invasive exotic natal grass (Melinis repens), two drivers of grassland bird habitat degradation. We used Hill’s numbers to estimate taxonomic species richness and diversity and related these metrics to vegetation covariables using linear models. We employed nonmetric dimensional scaling (NMDS) to explore the importance of vegetation covariates in structuring bird communities. We found that bird species diversity was significantly and negatively related to bare ground cover at a plot level. At the ranch level, shrub cover, grass height and natal grass were important in structuring avian communities, negatively affecting the presence and abundance of grassland specialist bird species. Our results indicated that shrub encroachment and invasive exotic natal grass cover may alter grassland bird communities and should, therefore, be considered in grassland bird conservation management.

Publisher

MDPI AG

Reference85 articles.

1. The Direct Drivers of Recent Global Anthropogenic Biodiversity Loss;Jaureguiberry;Sci. Adv.,2022

2. Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M., Juffe Bignoli, D., and Petersen, T. (2022). Living Planet Report 2022—Building a Nature Positive Society, WWF.

3. Confronting a Biome Crisis: Global Disparities of Habitat Loss and Protection;Hoekstra;Ecol. Lett.,2005

4. The Last Continuous Grasslands on Earth: Identification and Conservation Importance;Scholtz;Conserv. Sci. Pract.,2022

5. Assessing the Effects of Climate Variation and Human Activities on Grassland Degradation and Restoration across the Globe;Liu;Ecol. Indic.,2019

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3