Forest landecape and bird diversity in mountain region, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan

Differences in bird diversity between two swidden agricultural sites in mountainous terrain, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China

Abstract. Withaningsih S, Ramdhani MG, Hadi F, Parikesit. 2025. Correlations between human-modified landscape structure and bird diversity in Paseh Sub-district, Sumedang District, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 26: 1706-1719. Various factors, including environmental conditions, human activities, and land use patterns, influence the diversity of bird species. The characteristics of each land use pattern will affect the diversity of bird species in a given area. The present study aims to investigate the correlations between human-modified landscape structures and bird diversity in the Paseh Sub-district, Sumedang District, West Java, Indonesia, highlighting how changes in land use and habitat composition influence avian species richness and distribution. Research on the relationship between bird species diversity and landscape structure in the Paseh Sub-district was conducted using the point count method for collecting bird data. Landscape structure was analyzed using Fragstats software, and the results were analyzed using Spearman correlation. The study recorded 74 bird species from 32 families, totaling 3,115 individuals. The Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus) was the most abundant species, accounting for 38.1%. Bird diversity in Paseh Sub-district was assessed based on various land use patterns: settlements (H = 1.47), mixed gardens (H = 3.13), rice fields (H = 2.65), and others (H = 2.65). The overall bird species diversity was moderate (H = 2.91). The landscape influenced bird diversity. Larger areas (TA), longer edges (TE), more patches (NP, PR), complex patch shapes (MSI, MPFD), and lower landscape heterogeneity (SHDI) were correlated with higher bird species diversity.

Abstract: Deer densities in forests of eastern North America are thought to have significant effects on the abundance and diversity of forest birds through the role deer play in structuring forest understories. We tested the ability of deer to affect forest bird populations by monitoring the density and diversity of vegetation and birds for 9 years at eight 4‐ha sites in northern Virginia, four of which were fenced to exclude deer. Both the density and diversity of understory woody plants increased following deer exclosure. The numerical response of the shrubs to deer exclosure was significantly predicted by the soil quality (ratio of organic carbon to nitrogen) at the sites. Bird populations as a whole increased following exclosure of deer, particularly for ground and intermediate canopy species. The diversity of birds did not increase significantly following exclosure of deer, however, primarily because of replacement of species as understory vegetation proceeded through successional processes. Changes in understory vegetation accounted for most of the variability seen in the abundance and diversity of bird populations. Populations of deer in protected areas are capable of causing significant shifts in the composition and abundance of bird communities. These shifts can be reversed by increasing the density and diversity of understory vegetation, which can be brought about by reducing deer density.

Impact of agricultural landscape structure on the patterns of bird species diversity at a regional scale

Abstract. Abdullah M, Hakim L, Siswanto D, Setyowati DL. 2024. Mountain tourism impact on bird diversity along hiking trails of Mount Prau, Central Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 25: 4690-4698. Hiking represents a significant dimension of mountain tourism and has gained considerable popularity among travelers. Unfortunately, the perception of hiking activities as a form of mass tourism raises significant concerns regarding potential environmental degradation and the threats posed to biodiversity in mountainous regions. Birds are organisms that are sensitive to human activities. Therefore, a critical component for assessing the impact of mountain tourism on biodiversity is to analyze the diversity of bird species on several hiking trails. This study aims to examine the differences in bird species diversity on several hiking trails with different visitor frequencies on Mount Prau, Indonesia. Surveys for bird observations were conducted systematically using the Variable Circular Plot (VCP) method along the hiking trail. Bird species diversity data were analyzed to obtain Margalef's species richness index, Shannon diversity index, and Pielou's evenness index. In addition, correspondence analysis was also used to see the differences in the composition of bird community species on different hiking trails. Trails with high visitor preferences showed lower species richness, diversity, and evenness indices than rarely visited trails. Ordination analysis showed a clear grouping of bird communities based on species composition between highly visited and less visited routes. Less frequented Mount Prau trails host diverse endemics and high conservation status birds, while heavily frequented trails show reduced diversity. This finding confirms the negative impact of mountain tourism on bird biodiversity in the mountain area. This also signifies the need for a conservation strategy to balance mountain tourism with biodiversity conservation in Mount Prau. It should be able to limit the number of visitors, control access in sensitive areas, and involve methods of ecotourism that would favor wildlife.

Scale-dependent management of biodiversity and ecosystem processes in fragmented landscapes

Caucasian hogweeds, mainly the Sosnowsky’s hogweed Heracleum sosnowskyi and the giant hogweed Heracleum mantegazzianum, create one of the most problematic plant invasions in the world. Due to their large size (weeds reaching 4–5 meters in height), they seem to be herbaceous plants that can threaten birds living in forest stands. This research quantified the structure and diversity of the forest birds’ community in forests with varying areas of invasive hogweeds located in south-eastern Poland. Changes in the accompanying non-forest birds’ community were also assessed. The study addressed the following questions: 1. How does the invaded area correlate with the abundance of forest birds? 2. How do communities and species respond to invaded vegetation? 3. How do the invading plants affect the various types of diversity of forest and non-forest birds? It turned out that both surveyed bird communities had a lower alpha diversity in invaded sites. Only forest birds, not able to change their location easily, formed a unique community (i.e., had a higher beta diversity) near invaders. Forest birds showed unchanged functional diversity based on the relative bird abundance and their connection, or lack of it, with the forest development phases. The effect of hogweeds on the abundance of forest birds was more negative in severely invaded areas with anthropogenic habitats. Non-forest birds showed higher species loss near the invasion, constant beta diversity and decreased functional diversity. This study is important as the forest is a climax community in the temperate zone, and unused open areas become spontaneously overgrown with young forests. Weeds disseminating after crop abandonment can highly and commonly affect forest and non-forest bird communities co-occurring in this type of overgrowing area.

Long-term trends of abundance and diversity of forest birds have been very stable over past decades in European managed forests. It can be caused by high heterogeneity on habitat scale. In European cultural landscapes, there is another habitat very similar to managed forests, and that is a historic manor park. The parks can even show higher bird diversity than managed forests. However, there is an evident knowledge gap related to long-term changes of bird abundance and diversity in the habitats of manor parks. In this study we observed long-term changes of bird community in the historic manor park Čechy pod Kosířem (Czech Republic) using comparison of bird territory mapping in 2022–2023 with older bird studies in this locality. We gained an overview of bird community changes in the manor park for the period of 1997–2023. Results show that the bird community in historic manor park was remarkably unvarying in abundance and diversity. Historic manor parks can be considered as important refuges for forest bird diversity in cultural landscapes. We discuss the research implications for conserving bird diversity in managed forests especially in connection with large old trees preservation providing heterogeneity of nest habitats.

The potential for agricultural landscapes to support biodiversity may vary greatly based on agricultural land use. Current knowledge suggests that agricultural composition and intensity are dominant drivers of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, with variable effects of agricultural configuration and landscape diversity. The aim of this study was to determine the relative effects of agricultural composition, intensity, configuration, and landscape diversity on the species diversity of six distinct bird guilds on the landscape scale in a large and complex landscape in Ontario, Canada. We found that agricultural configuration, specifically patchiness of croplands, and to a lesser degree forage lands, was the strongest predictor of bird diversity for three of the six bird guilds considered (forest, shrubland, and town). The effects of increased cropland patchiness were variable, with forest and shrubland bird diversity increasing from small to moderate patchiness, and town bird diversity declining from moderate to high patchiness. Grassland birds, a group of considerable conservation concern, increased near linearly with increased agricultural land cover in the landscape, highlighting the need to consider agricultural lands in conservation planning for this species group. Woodland bird diversity declined significantly with all increasing measures of agricultural intensity, including the proportion of high-intensity agriculture and larger patches of agricultural land. Wetland birds were unique from the other guilds, showing primarily a strong association between diversity of land cover types and guild-level bird diversity. Surprisingly, increased cover of agricultural lands, which we predicted to be a dominant driver of guild-level bird diversity declines due to habitat loss, had weak, non-significant effects relative to the other land use variable being tested, except for the positive association with grassland birds. Our findings suggest that a mix of management strategies should be employed to consider the varying effects of agricultural lands on different bird guilds, such as the inclusion of agricultural land in conservation strategies for grassland species and further managing the configuration of agricultural lands to enhance biodiversity of agricultural landscapes.

Grassland management in agricultural vs. forested landscapes drives butterfly and bird diversity

The rational cognition of land use spatial pattern is the beginning of land use regionalization, as well as the foundation of land consolidation project. This paper adopts the spatial autocorrelation research methods such as global spatial autocorrelation, local indicator of spatial association, taking the land use as the research object. In particular, this research takes the provincial region (Yunnan Province) as the scope scale and the county level as the analytical scale. Moreover, based on the land use survey data of Yunnan Province in 2015, this paper analyzes the spatial autocorrelation pattern of land use, and explores the human impact on the pattern formation. The results show that: (1) The spatial correlation of land use types in Yunnan Province showed positive spatial correlation. (2) There are obvious regional differences in the spatial aggregation of various land use types in Yunnan Province. (3) There are two trends of spatial pattern and spatial overlap in the high value aggregation pattern of land use types in Yunnan Province. (4) Human impact factors have different effects on the specific distribution of land use types in Yunnan Province, and there are significant spatial positive correlation for urban industrial and mining land, transportation land and cultivated land, and the distribution of forest land has significant negative correlation. This study shows that Yunnan Province, as an underdeveloped Frontier Province in China, shows significant accumulation of construction land in land use and great influence on ecological land.

The article reviews the natural and anthropogenic factors that have influenced the rapid deforestation and degradation of the forest landscapes of the Mount Cameroon ecosystem. One of the greatest riches of Cameroon in addition to mineral exploitation is the moist evergreen equatorial forest. This forest ecosystem is known for its high degree of speciation, biological diversity and very high biological productivity in the Guinea-Congolese regional zone of endemism. However, this ecosystem has not been very stable over the past decades. The forest has witnessed significant damages due to some natural and anthropogenic activities. These activities range from unsustainable agricultural practices, uncontrolled and spontaneous growth of infrastructures. This has led to the continuous degradation of the forest cover to the extent that there is a complete disappearance of vegetation cover. This has serious consequences on the soils through accelerated erosion and leaching, displacement of wild animals, destruction of microorganisms, accelerated dryness of springs and small streams, thereby, worsening the impact of climate change.The study therefore, analyzes the vegetation structure of the Cameroon mountain (mangrove, lowland/foot-hills and montane/afromontane forest landscapes) and reviews the natural and anthropogenic factors that impact the forest landscape. Furthermore, analysis of the dynamics, transformation and changes within a period of 50 years (1965-2015) will equally be studied.The methodology used in this work is descriptive, analytic and comparative. Secondary data from satellite images were used to study the land use dynamics in 1978, 2000 and 2015The results of our findings revealed that a combination of natural and human factors has reduced the forest landscape of this eco-region to about 79%. But man in particular has raped huge tracks of forest landscapes for his selfish economic gains without making any commensurate effort for their sustainability and conservation. It is however obvious that such irrational use of nature takes place against the background of the lack of professional organization of the territory and programs for the use of forest resources. The rational use, protection and preservation of forests and forest landscapes is the basis for the harmonious development of the natural environment, which is based on modern scientific and practical structural and geographical research. This study therefore, proposed some urgent environmental strategies to rescue this eco-region from further degradation.

The biodiversity in mountainous ecosystems is high but is threatened by rapid environmental change. Urbanization and other anthropogenic factors in the mountains can affect land use and spatial fragmentation. Moreover, patterns of habitat are closely related to elevation and have a major effect on montane biodiversity. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of spatial fragmentation on the vertical distribution pattern of bird diversity by characterizing the structure of the bird community, species diversity, and landscape factors at different altitudes. From 2016 to 2019, this study made a four years of continuous monitoring of the breeding birds. The result indicated that Mount Tai harbored a high bird diversity. Bird richness, abundance, and Shannon‐Wiener index decreased with latitude in Mount Tai monotonically. Moreover, the structure of bird communities varied along altitudinal gradients, and some special species were supported in different elevational bands due to the environmental filtering. Road density, number of habitat patches, patch density, and the percentage of forest were significantly related to bird diversity. Sufficient habitat and more patches in the low‐mountain belt supported higher bird diversity. The middle‐mountain belt and high‐mountain belt showed contrasting patterns. Our results highlight the effects of on‐going urbanization and human activities on montane biodiversity and emphasize the need for artificial habitats in the mountains to be managed.

Understanding the dynamics of SOM in different land use types is critical for effective land management and climate mitigation strategies. In this study, we investigated the differences in soil organic matter (SOM) content between forest and grassland landscapes in the mountainous zone of Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia. We collected soil samples from multiple locations under both land use types and analysed them for SOM content using standard laboratory techniques. The results showed that the SOM content varied from 2.2 to 15.3% under forest landscape with an average of 6.7% and was characterized by high variability (51.8%). The SOM concentrations under grassland ranged from 2.1 to 6.5% with an average of 3.2%, while the coefficient of variation was 31.8%. According to the classification, the average SOM value in forest soils was classified as “high”, while in grassland soils it was classified as “low”. Overall, the variability in SOM content within forested landscapes can be influenced by a range of factors, including topography, erosion, and redeposition of soil. These factors contributed to the complex patterns of SOM accumulation and decomposition observed in forest soils, and should be considered when evaluating the potential impacts of land use change on SOM. Our study highlights the importance of understanding the factors that influence SOM content in soils, and the need for careful management of land use systems to maintain or enhance soil fertility and productivity.

Anthropogenic effects on the biodiversity of riparian wetlands of a northern temperate landscape