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Effect of landscape configuration and habitat quality on the community structure of waterbirds using a man-made habitat

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Abstract

Species occurrence and community structure are strongly influenced by multiple factors like habitat selection, species movement capabilities, competition, or conspecific and heterospecific attractions. More specifically, in waterbird communities, previous studies have identified the importance of environmental and structural characteristics of wetlands for their occupation and use. However, the effect of the surrounding landscape configuration remains unknown. In this article, we use a large network of artificial irrigation ponds to evaluate the importance of pond features in comparison to the effect of landscape and spatial configuration on the community at three different spatial scales. Our results show that landscape configuration has relatively little influence on structure of the waterbird community. Pond features were by far the most important variables to describe waterbird abundance and richness. At the species level, we detected differences in habitat preferences relating to species-specific ecological requirements. Our results highlight the importance of using a multiscale approach to understand and predict richness and abundance in waterbird communities. Our findings emphasize the need to maintain high-quality ponds to enhance their suitability for use as breeding and foraging sites.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a VOLCAM project. We thank the Taray Servicios Ambientales association and all the volunteers for organizing and performing the surveys. E S-G and K.A. benefited from a FPU grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education. E S-G is currently supported by the 2013/02819-7 São Paulo Research Foundation-FAPESP grant. This work has been partially supported by the Generalitat Valenciana through the R&D project CTIDIB/2002/142 and by the Conselleria de Territori i Habitatge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecology Area, Department of Applied Biology, University of Miguel Hernández, Avda Universidad s/n, E-03202, Elche, Spain

    Juan Manuel Pérez-García, Karen Luisa Alexander, José Antonio Sánchez-Zapata & Francisco Botella

  2. Department of Ecology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Esther Sebastián-González

  3. Biology Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Esther Sebastián-González

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  1. Juan Manuel Pérez-García
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  2. Esther Sebastián-González
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  3. Karen Luisa Alexander
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  4. José Antonio Sánchez-Zapata
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  5. Francisco Botella
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Correspondence to Juan Manuel Pérez-García.

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Communicated by C. Gortázar

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Pérez-García, J.M., Sebastián-González, E., Alexander, K.L. et al. Effect of landscape configuration and habitat quality on the community structure of waterbirds using a man-made habitat. Eur J Wildl Res 60, 875–883 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-014-0854-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-014-0854-8

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