Effects of landscape context and vegetation attributes on understorey bird communities of cloud forest riparian belts

Abstract

Abstract In recent decades land cover change resulting from different types of human activity has severely reduced the original area of tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF). Deforested landscapes in neotropical America commonly have a heterogeneous structure (i.e. landscape context) with increasingly small forest patches immersed in an agricultural matrix. Often, this matrix is not completely devoid of trees, but contain numerous and widely spread arboreal elements. Many of these elements are remnants of the original forest, such as arboreal riparian belts. In 14 riparian belts of TMCF in central Veracruz, Mexico, we assessed the relationship between the attributes of the bird community that uses these belts and their vegetation attributes, as well as with landscape structure in their vicinity at four different scales (within 250, 500, 750 and 1000\xa0m). Bird richness and abundance in riparian belts were positively related with mean tree height. Regarding landscape context, the amount of urban area in the vicinity of each belt was positively related with bird abundance at the four scales studied, explaining between 14 and 31% of spatial variation. However, the abundance of forest interior birds was negatively related with urban area, explaining from 46 to 50% of variation. Both, local (tree height) and landscape characteristics (urban and forest cover) influence differentially bird abundance in riparian belts of cloud forest. Thus, both kinds of variables should be relevant for designing management plans aimed at enhancing the conservation of the native avifauna of the cloud forest and its ecosystem services within transformed landscapes.