Abstract
Birds are declining in agricultural landscapes around the world. The causes of these declines can be better understood by analysing change in groups of species that share life-history traits. We investigated how land-use change has affected birds of the Tasmanian Midlands, one of Australia's oldest agricultural landscapes and a focus of habitat restoration. We surveyed birds at 72 sites, some of which were previously surveyed in 1996–1998, and tested relationships of current patterns of abundance and community composition to landscape and patch-level environmental characteristics. Fourth-corner modelling showed strong negative responses of aerial foragers and exotics to increasing woodland cover; arboreal foragers were positively associated with projective foliage cover; and small-bodied species were reduced by the presence of a hyperaggressive species of native honeyeater, the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala). Analysis of change suggests increases in large-bodied granivorous or carnivorous birds and declines in some arboreal foragers and nectarivores. Changes in species richness were best explained by changes in noisy miner abundance and levels of surrounding woodland cover. We encourage restoration practitioners to trial novel planting configurations that may confer resistance to invasion by noisy miners, and a continued long-term monitoring effort to reveal the effects of future land-use change on Tasmanian birds.
Highlights
Agricultural intensification is a major cause of global biodiversity loss [1]
72 were recorded during transect surveys, including five species that are exotic to Australia and three that have been introduced to Tasmania from the Australian mainland
Because of the influence of noisy miners and a greater range in patch size, woodlands classed as medium size varied greatly in bird community composition
Summary
Agricultural intensification is a major cause of global biodiversity loss [1]. Beyond the direct clearing and fragmentation of habitat royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos R. Corvids and mammalian mesopredators (for example, feral cats Felis catus and raccoons Procyon lotor) are thought to have benefitted from an increased food supply on farms and fewer large predators [6,7]. The mechanization of agriculture and expansion of irrigated lands results in the removal of discrete habitat elements such as paddock trees, surface rocks, coarse woody debris and hedgerows [8,9]. These features are often the only source of cover for animals in farm landscapes and are used by a range of taxa for breeding, thermoregulation and as sources of food [10,11,12]
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