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How does a transforming landscape influence bird breeding success?

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Abstract

Context

The conversion of agricultural landscapes to tree plantations is a major form of landscape transformation worldwide, but its effects on biodiversity, particularly key population processes like reproductive success, are poorly understood.

Objectives

We compared bird breeding success between woodland remnants surrounded by maturing stands of plantation Radiata Pine and a matched set of woodland remnants in semi-cleared grazing land.

Methods

Our study was conducted in the Nanangroe region in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Using repeated field measurements, we quantified bird breeding success in 23 woodland remnants; 13 surrounded by Radiata Pine plantations and 10 on farms where remnants were surrounded by semi-cleared grazing land. We matched the attributes of native remnant patches between two types of matrix.

Results

We found that: (1) rates of nesting success of smaller-bodied birds in woodland remnants surrounded by grazing land were significantly higher than in woodland remnants surrounded by pine plantations; and (2) taxa with domed nests were more successful at nesting than species that constructed open cup/bowl nests in woodland remnants within farmlands.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that bird breeding success in remnant woodland patches is significantly diminished as a result of the conversion of semi-cleared grazing land to pine plantations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Andrew Keating for access to his farms. We thank Damian Michael for his comments that improved earlier versions of the manuscript. Field work was approved by Animal Ethics Committee of The Australian National University (Approved Number: A2012/46) and also conducted under a NPWS Scientific Research Licence (SL100982).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, 141 Linnaeus Way, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Sachiko Okada, David B. Lindenmayer, Jeff T. Wood, Mason J. Crane & Jennifer C. Pierson

  2. Fenner School of Environment and Society, Long Term Ecological Research Network, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, The Australian National University, 141 Linnaeus Way, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    David B. Lindenmayer

Authors
  1. Sachiko Okada
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  2. David B. Lindenmayer
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  5. Jennifer C. Pierson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David B. Lindenmayer.

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Okada, S., Lindenmayer, D.B., Wood, J.T. et al. How does a transforming landscape influence bird breeding success?. Landscape Ecol 32, 1039–1048 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-017-0507-x

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