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The heterogeneity of wooded-agricultural landscape mosaics influences woodland bird community assemblages

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Abstract

Context

Landscape heterogeneity (the composition and configuration of different landcover types) plays a key role in shaping woodland bird assemblages in wooded-agricultural mosaics. Understanding how species respond to landscape factors could contribute to preventing further decline of woodland bird populations.

Objective

To investigate how woodland birds with different species traits respond to landscape heterogeneity, and to identify whether specific landcover types are important for maintaining diverse populations in wooded-agricultural environments.

Methods

Birds were sampled from woodlands in 58 2 × 2 km tetrads across southern Britain. Landscape heterogeneity was quantified for each tetrad. Bird assemblage response was determined using redundancy analysis combined with variation partitioning and response trait analyses.

Results

For woodland bird assemblages, the independent explanatory importance of landscape composition and landscape configuration variables were closely interrelated. When considered simultaneously during variation partitioning, the community response was better represented by compositional variables. Different species responded to different landscape features and this could be explained by traits relating to woodland association, foraging strata and nest location. Ubiquitous, generalist species, many of which were hole-nesters or ground foragers, correlated positively with urban landcover while specialists of broadleaved woodland avoided landscapes containing urban areas. Species typical of coniferous woodland correlated with large conifer plantations.

Conclusions

At the 2 × 2 km scale, there was evidence that the availability of resources provided by proximate landcover types was highly important for shaping woodland bird assemblages. Further research to disentangle the effects of composition and configuration at different spatial scales is advocated.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust for the funding provided and to all the landowners who granted us permission to access their land for survey.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Jessica L. Neumann & Geoffrey H. Griffiths

  2. Centre for Wildlife Assessment and Conservation, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Jessica L. Neumann, Christopher W. Foster & Graham J. Holloway

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  1. Jessica L. Neumann
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  2. Geoffrey H. Griffiths
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  3. Christopher W. Foster
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  4. Graham J. Holloway
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Correspondence to Jessica L. Neumann.

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Neumann, J.L., Griffiths, G.H., Foster, C.W. et al. The heterogeneity of wooded-agricultural landscape mosaics influences woodland bird community assemblages. Landscape Ecol 31, 1833–1848 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-016-0366-x

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