Abstract
Landscape structure can affect waterbird distributions across wetlands. In the Caribbean region, little focus has been given to the studies testing how waterbird communities are affected by the landscape structure of coastal wetlands. We investigated the effects of landscape configuration on waterbird communities in southwestern Cuba and evaluated the contribution of the configuration of lagoons, mangrove and anthropogenic land use to waterbird diversity. Additionally, we identified the scale at which descriptors of waterbird community are most sensitive to landscape variables. We conducted waterbird surveys at 14 sampling points in coastal wetlands of southwestern Cuba during fall migration of 2016. Landscape structure was described with five landscape variables at three spatial scales. We found that at 6 km scale, mangrove mean patch area had a negative influence on waterbird abundance, while the percentage of landscape covered by lagoons had a positive effect at 2 km. However, a higher percentage of both mangroves and lagoons had an influence in waterbird composition variation at 2 km. The percentage of anthropogenic land use did not affect any response variable at the evaluated scales. Detecting the scale at which two important landscape resources (lagoons and mangroves) influence waterbird populations is an important tool for the successful management of these habitats. Study of these features could contribute to the adequate planning of protected areas along the coast of Cuba and the Caribbean.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the National Protected Areas Center of Cuba, to Forestgard body of Cuba and protected areas of the National Enterprise for Protection of Flora and Fauna of Cuba (San Ubaldo Sabanalamar, Golfo de Batabanó and Sureste del Inglés) for supporting this study. We acknowledged to R. Gomes for help during fieldwork, and I. Galarda and A. Padial for their statistical suggestions. We are grateful to D. Green and M. Carbonell for suggestions and English revision of this manuscript. S. Aguilar thanks to CNPq (Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) for PhD. scholarship.
Funding
The research (Effect of landscape structure on waterbirds community in a conservation gradient in southwestern wetlands coast of Cuba) was supported by CNPq (Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development; process: 141185/2016-3).
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Aguilar, S., Mugica, L., Acosta, M. et al. Effect of landscape structure on waterbirds community in a conservation gradient in southwestern wetlands coast of Cuba. Wetlands Ecol Manage 29, 929–944 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-021-09821-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-021-09821-9