The indirect effects of habitat disturbance on the bird communities in a tropical African forest

Verfasser / Beitragende:
[Christos Mammides, Matthias Schleuning, Katrin Böhning-Gaese, Gertrud Schaab, Nina Farwig, Costas Kadis, Tim Coulson]
Ort, Verlag, Jahr:
2015
Enthalten in:
Biodiversity and Conservation, 24/12(2015-11-01), 3083-3107
Format:
Artikel (online)
ID: 605527008
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024 7 0 |a 10.1007/s10531-015-1001-x  |2 doi 
035 |a (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10531-015-1001-x 
245 0 4 |a The indirect effects of habitat disturbance on the bird communities in a tropical African forest  |h [Elektronische Daten]  |c [Christos Mammides, Matthias Schleuning, Katrin Böhning-Gaese, Gertrud Schaab, Nina Farwig, Costas Kadis, Tim Coulson] 
520 3 |a Tropical forests are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic activities often resulting in habitat and biodiversity loss. To effectively manage and protect these areas, it is important to have an understanding of the factors affecting their biodiversity. Previous research has shown that birds in tropical regions are severely affected by human-induced habitat conversion and disturbance. The effects, however, are often area and guild-specific and the underlying mechanisms are frequently unclear. In this study, we disentangle and quantify the direct and indirect effects of human population density, distance to forest edge, habitat disturbance, and vegetation structure and composition on the total abundance and species richness of birds in Kakamega Forest, Kenya. Specifically, we use structural equation modeling to develop and test path models, which reflect the potential causal relationships between the bird assemblages and the chosen explanatory factors. Relationships were tested on the overall bird community and on five different guilds, classified according to birds' forest specialization and feeding preferences (i.e. forest specialists, generalists and visitors, and frugivores and insectivores). Results showed that habitat disturbance, caused by logging, had a weak positive direct effect on the bird communities, but also had a strong detrimental indirect effect, particularly on the total abundance and species richness of forests specialists and insectivores. The negative effect was mediated through changes in the forest's vegetation structure and composition. Shorter distances to the forest edge also had a negative effect, on all bird categories except on forest visitors, which also benefited from higher levels of disturbance. Our study shows that although in some cases habitat disturbance may have no strong direct negative effects it can still negatively influence bird communities in an indirect way. In the case of Kakamega Forest, we suggest that to conserve bird communities it is important to maintain the forest's compositional and structural diversity by reducing human-induced habitat disturbance, such as illegal logging activities. 
540 |a Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2015 
690 7 |a Bird conservation  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Tropical forests  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Structural equation modeling  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Species richness  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Anthropogenic habitat disturbance  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Vegetation structure and composition  |2 nationallicence 
700 1 |a Mammides  |D Christos  |u Division of Biology and Centre for Population Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Imperial College, Silwood Park, Ascot, SL5 7PY, Berkshire, UK  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Schleuning  |D Matthias  |u Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) and Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt/Main, Germany  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Böhning-Gaese  |D Katrin  |u Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) and Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt/Main, Germany  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Schaab  |D Gertrud  |u Faculty of Information Management and Media, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Moltkestrasse 30, 76133, Karlsruhe, Germany  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Farwig  |D Nina  |u Department of Ecology, Conservation Ecology, University of Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 8, 35032, Marburg, Germany  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Kadis  |D Costas  |u Nature Conservation Unit, Frederick University, P. O. Box 24729, 1303, Nicosia, Cyprus  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Coulson  |D Tim  |u Division of Biology and Centre for Population Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Imperial College, Silwood Park, Ascot, SL5 7PY, Berkshire, UK  |4 aut 
773 0 |t Biodiversity and Conservation  |d Springer Netherlands  |g 24/12(2015-11-01), 3083-3107  |x 0960-3115  |q 24:12<3083  |1 2015  |2 24  |o 10531 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-1001-x  |q text/html  |z Onlinezugriff via DOI 
898 |a BK010053  |b XK010053  |c XK010000 
900 7 |a Metadata rights reserved  |b Springer special CC-BY-NC licence  |2 nationallicence 
908 |D 1  |a research-article  |2 jats 
949 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |F NATIONALLICENCE  |b NL-springer 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 856  |E 40  |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-1001-x  |q text/html  |z Onlinezugriff via DOI 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Mammides  |D Christos  |u Division of Biology and Centre for Population Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Imperial College, Silwood Park, Ascot, SL5 7PY, Berkshire, UK  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Schleuning  |D Matthias  |u Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) and Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt/Main, Germany  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Böhning-Gaese  |D Katrin  |u Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) and Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt/Main, Germany  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Schaab  |D Gertrud  |u Faculty of Information Management and Media, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Moltkestrasse 30, 76133, Karlsruhe, Germany  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Farwig  |D Nina  |u Department of Ecology, Conservation Ecology, University of Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 8, 35032, Marburg, Germany  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Kadis  |D Costas  |u Nature Conservation Unit, Frederick University, P. O. Box 24729, 1303, Nicosia, Cyprus  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Coulson  |D Tim  |u Division of Biology and Centre for Population Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Imperial College, Silwood Park, Ascot, SL5 7PY, Berkshire, UK  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 773  |E 0-  |t Biodiversity and Conservation  |d Springer Netherlands  |g 24/12(2015-11-01), 3083-3107  |x 0960-3115  |q 24:12<3083  |1 2015  |2 24  |o 10531