Piospheres in the dry Chaco. Contrasting effects of livestock puestos on forest vegetation and bird communities

Abstract

In arid and semiarid ecosystems, the congregation of livestock around water sources gives rise to a utilization gradient termed the “piosphere pattern”. We evaluated piospheres surrounding the puestos livestock management system in the Chaco dry forests of Argentina. We sampled vegetation and bird communities around eighteen puestos and we fitted curves to describe the responses of vegetation and bird community variables to the distance from the puestos. We used Partial Canonical Correspondence Analysis to evaluate the organization of bird guilds constrained by vegetation variables and the distance from the puestos. Vegetation structure increased with the distance from the puestos. In contrast, the abundance of most bird's guilds decreased with distance from the puestos, likely in response to the gradient in resources associated to the water source, food and changes in vegetation. Rare or low abundance bird species peaked at intermediate or long distances from the puestos. Our results concur with studies characterizing the puestos as a focus of vegetation degradation, but the analysis of the avian community shows that the nature of this piosphere is more complex, as is a favorable habitat for some ecological groups.