Abstract
Road construction is considered to be one of the primary causes of forest fragmentation, and little is known about how roads affect bird reproductive success. The objective of this study was to assess the survival rate of artificial nests along an edge associated with a highway and in the interior of a tabuleiro forest. The study was performed at the Sooretama Biological Reserve, on the margins of federal highway BR‐101, between September and October 2015. A total of 168 artificial nests with a Common quail (Coturnix coturnix) egg in each nest were placed along six sampling transects, at distances of 2, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800 m from the highway toward the forest interior. We used logistic regression and estimated daily survival rate (DSR) using the “Nest Survival” function in the program MARK to estimate artificial nest survival and assessed the effect of the distance from the highway. The artificial nest survival rate was significantly higher on the highway margins than at other distances. The results show that artificial nests located up to 25 m from the highway have a greater success probability (over 95%) and a significant decrease in success probability more than 50 m from the highway. Although we cannot rule out other nonroad‐specific edge effects on artificial nest predation, our results suggest that the impacts of the highway (e.g., noise, vibration, visual stimuli) cause predators to avoid the road's surroundings (up to 25 m into the forest) when selecting their feeding sites, which partially supports the predation release hypothesis.
Highlights
Road construction is considered to be one of the primary causes of forest fragmentation, resulting in an increase in the amount of edge habitat (Coffin, 2007; Fearnside, 1990; Laurance, Goosem, & Laurance, 2009)
Edges created by roads are more abrupt than the edges common in many natural landscapes, which are more diffuse, increasing problems associated with an edge effect (Benítez‐López, Alkemade, & Verweij, 2010; Forman & Deblinger, 2000)
We argue our study contributes to un‐ derstand the spatial diversity of edge effects on nest survival in the tropics
Summary
Road construction is considered to be one of the primary causes of forest fragmentation, resulting in an increase in the amount of edge habitat (Coffin, 2007; Fearnside, 1990; Laurance, Goosem, & Laurance, 2009). There have been few experimental studies on the factors affecting nest predation inten‐ sity near habitat edges in tropical forests (Coelho, 1999; Marini et al, 1995), especially regarding forest edges associated with roads (Batáry & Báldi, 2004; Vetter et al, 2013). | 7403 and/or foraging activity due to road mortality and traffic distur‐ bance (Downing, Rytwinski, & Fahrig, 2015; Fahrig & Rytwinski, 2009; Rytwinski & Fahrig, 2013) It is well known the neg‐ ative impacts of roads on bird predators (Trombulak & Frissel, 2000; Zabala et al, 2006), studies failed to support the prediction of lower adult and nest predation near roads (DeGregorio, Weatherhead, & Sperry, 2014; Dziadzio, Smith, Chandler, & Castleberry, 2016), prob‐ ably because some predators can be favoured by roads (DeGregorio et al, 2014). We argue our study contributes to un‐ derstand the spatial diversity of edge effects on nest survival in the tropics
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
