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Cropland can support high bird diversity in heterogenous rural tropical landscapes

Lookup NU author(s): Sheena Davis, Dr Sergio Guerreiro MilheirasORCiD, Lauren Barnes, Professor Marion PfeiferORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

Land use change for crop production is one of the key drivers of habitat loss and fragmentation and consequently biodiversity loss and change in tropical regions. This may impact biodiversity regulated ecosystem services; birds are important to crop health regulating services (seed dispersal, pest control) and disservices (seed predation, grain herbivory). However, knowledge is limited on how birds use heterogeneous agricultural landscapes and the consequences for spatial distribution and flow of services and disservices. We studied crop and non-crop habitat associations of birds in forest-agricultural landscapes of the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. We focussed on dietary preference as a key trait impacting bird responses to land use change, services, and disservices to crops. We surveyed birds across four main habitat types using repeated point counts, recording a total of 148 species. We found that crop habitats supported higher species richness and larger communities of potentially beneficial species to crop health, whereby 34.5% of invertebrate feeding species were recorded in cropland. We found that habitat heterogeneity within the landscape supports bird functional diversity and that each habitat type supported unique communities of species, furthermore, the number of species unique to forest habitats increased with increasing forest canopy closure. Our findings suggest management strategies of maintaining trees, shrubs and enhancing tree cover within the crop production landscape, can be effective approaches for maintaining bird diversity and services. However, in depth studies on trade-offs with disservices need further exploration to mitigate negative impacts of birds on crop yields.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Davis S, Guerreiro Milheiras S, Olivier PL, Barnes L, Shirima D, Kioko E, Sallu SM, Ishengoma E, Marshall AR, Pfeifer M

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Bird Conservation International

Year: 2024

Volume: 34

Pages: 1-10

Online publication date: 25/04/2024

Acceptance date: 12/03/2024

Date deposited: 13/03/2024

ISSN (print): 0959-2709

ISSN (electronic): 1474-0001

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959270924000030

DOI: 10.1017/S0959270924000030

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/8vzq-e241


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
BB/S014586/1Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
FT170100279Australian Research Council

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