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Distinct carbon sources indicate strong differentiation between tropical forest and farmland bird communities

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Abstract

The conversion of forest into farmland has resulted in mosaic landscapes in many parts of the tropics. From a conservation perspective, it is important to know whether tropical farmlands can buffer species loss caused by deforestation and how different functional groups of birds respond to land-use intensification. To test the degree of differentiation between farmland and forest bird communities across feeding guilds, we analyzed stable C and N isotopes in blood and claws of 101 bird species comprising four feeding guilds along a tropical forest-farmland gradient in Kenya. We additionally assessed the importance of farmland insectivores for pest control in C4 crops by using allometric relationships, C stable isotope ratios and estimates of bird species abundance. Species composition differed strongly between forest and farmland bird communities. Across seasons, forest birds primarily relied on C3 carbon sources, whereas many farmland birds also assimilated C4 carbon. While C sources of frugivores and omnivores did not differ between forest and farmland communities, insectivores used more C4 carbon in the farmland than in the forest. Granivores assimilated more C4 carbon than all other guilds in the farmland. We estimated that insectivorous farmland birds consumed at least 1,000 kg pest invertebrates km−2 year−1. We conclude that tropical forest and farmland understory bird communities are strongly separated and that tropical farmlands cannot compensate forest loss for insectivorous forest understory birds. In tropical farmlands, insectivorous bird species provide a quantitatively important contribution to pest control.

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Acknowledgments

Edson Mlamba and Jonathan Mukaisi provided indispensable help with the field work. Willi Dindorf, Marc Ruppenthal, Brigitte Müller and Maria Müller helped with the stable isotope analysis. Daniel Kissling, Irina Laube, Nils Breitbach and Ronald Mulwa kindly provided useful unpublished data. Two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Kenya Wildlife Service permitted us to work in Kakamega Forest. This work was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of BIOTA East Africa (Subproject E11, 01LC0625E1) and by the research funding programme LOEWE—Landes-Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz of Hesse’s Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and the Arts. The field work complied with the current laws of Kenya.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Institute for Zoology, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Becherweg 13, 55099, Mainz, Germany

    Stefan W. Ferger, Katrin Böhning-Gaese & Matthias Schleuning

  2. Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt (Main), Germany

    Stefan W. Ferger, Katrin Böhning-Gaese & Matthias Schleuning

  3. Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt (Main), Germany

    Stefan W. Ferger, Katrin Böhning-Gaese & Matthias Schleuning

  4. Department of Biological Sciences, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Max-von-Laue-Straße 9, 60438, Frankfurt (Main), Germany

    Katrin Böhning-Gaese

  5. Geographic Institute, University of Berne, Hallerstrasse 12, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Wolfgang Wilcke

  6. Geoecology/Geography, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstrasse 19-23, 72070, Tübingen, Germany

    Yvonne Oelmann

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  1. Stefan W. Ferger
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Correspondence to Stefan W. Ferger.

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Communicated by Chris Whelan.

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Ferger, S.W., Böhning-Gaese, K., Wilcke, W. et al. Distinct carbon sources indicate strong differentiation between tropical forest and farmland bird communities. Oecologia 171, 473–486 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2422-9

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