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Does hydrological fragmentation affect coastal bird communities? A study from Abaco Island, The Bahamas

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Abstract

Habitat fragmentation represents one of the most important threats to biodiversity. Fragmentation of aquatic ecosystems is pervasive, fundamentally altering aquatic community structure and ecosystem function on a worldwide scale. Because of the many ecological changes associated with hydrologic fragmentation of coastal wetlands, there may be cascading effects on non-aquatic organisms. Here we explored if anthropogenic fragmentation of tidal creek wetlands on Abaco Island, The Bahamas, affected bird communities. By comparing fragmented and unfragmented sections of nine separate tidal creeks, we tested whether fragmentation of coastal wetlands (due to roads) affected the richness, abundance, and composition of wetland bird assemblages. Although bird communities significantly differed among tidal creeks (irrespective of fragmentation status), and water salinity was positively correlated with species richness and abundance of wetland-associated birds, we found no significant differences in bird communities between fragmented and unfragmented sections of wetlands. Our findings suggest fragmented portions of tidal creek wetlands support avian communities relatively similar to their unfragmented counterparts, despite a range of differences in environmental features. These results indicate that other ecological factors (i.e., salinity) may be more important than fragmentation per se in affecting bird utilization of wetland habitats in The Bahamas.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Friends of the Environment (Abaco, The Bahamas, non-governmental organization) for their support. Field assistance was provided by J Lee, C Acevedo, R Abbey-Lee, and H Bubla. Research was supported by NSF Grants OCE #0746164, DEB #0842196 and DEB #0842364. Habitat layers for site characterizations were provided by The Nature Conservancy.

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Author notes

  1. Dinorah H. Chacin

    Present address: College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, Saint Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

  2. Sean T. Giery & Craig A. Layman

    Present address: Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, 127 David Clark Labs, Campus Box 7617, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7617, USA

  3. Lauren A. Yeager

    Present address: Institute of Marine Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Morehead City, NC, 28557, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Sciences Program, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, North Miami, FL, 33181, USA

    Dinorah H. Chacin, Sean T. Giery, Lauren A. Yeager & Craig A. Layman

  2. Department of Biological Sciences and W.M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    R. Brian Langerhans

Authors
  1. Dinorah H. Chacin
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  2. Sean T. Giery
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  3. Lauren A. Yeager
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  4. Craig A. Layman
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  5. R. Brian Langerhans
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sean T. Giery.

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Chacin, D.H., Giery, S.T., Yeager, L.A. et al. Does hydrological fragmentation affect coastal bird communities? A study from Abaco Island, The Bahamas. Wetlands Ecol Manage 23, 551–557 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-014-9389-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-014-9389-8

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