Forest Bird Communities Research Articles

Cross-scale effects of spruce budworm outbreaks on boreal warblers in eastern Canada.

Insect outbreaks are major natural disturbance events that affect communities of forest birds, either directly by affecting the food supply or indirectly by changing the vegetation composition of forest canopies. An examination of correlations between measures of bird and insect abundance across different spatial scales and over varying time lag effects may provide insight into underlying mechanisms. We developed a hierarchical Bayesian model to assess correlations between counts of eight warbler species from the Breeding Bird Survey in eastern Canada, 1966 to 2009, with the presence of spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana Clem.) at immediate local scales and time‐lagged regional scales, as measured by extent of defoliation on host tree species. Budworm‐associated species Cape May warbler (Setophaga tigrina), bay‐breasted warbler (Setophaga castanea), and Tennessee warbler (Oreothlypis peregrina) responded strongly and positively to both local and regional effects. In contrast, non‐budworm‐associated species, Blackburnian warbler (Setophaga fusca), magnolia warbler (Setophaga magnolia), Canada warbler (Cardellina canadensis), black‐throated blue warbler (Setophaga caerulescens), and black‐throated green warbler (Setophaga virens), only responded to regional effects in a manner that varied across eastern Canada. The complex responses by forest birds to insect outbreaks involve both increased numerical responses to food supply and to longer term responses to changes in forest structure and composition. These effects can vary across spatial scales and be captured in hierarchical population models, which can serve to disentangle common trends from data when examining drivers of population dynamics like forest management or climate change.

Road induced edge effects on a forest bird community in tropical Asia

BackgroundEdge effects cause changes in bird community richness, abundance, and/or distribution within a landscape, but the avian guilds most influenced can vary among regions. Although Southeast Asia has the highest rates of deforestation and projected species loss, and is currently undergoing an explosive growth in road infrastructure, there have been few studies of the effects of forest edges on avian communities in this region.MethodsWe examined avian community structure in a dry evergreen forest in northeastern Thailand adjacent to a five-lane highway. We evaluated the richness and abundance of birds in 11 guilds at 24 survey points on three parallel transects perpendicular to the edge. At each point, 10-min surveys were conducted during February‒August 2014 and March‒August 2015. Vegetation measurements were conducted at 16 of the bird survey points and ambient noise was measured at all 24 survey points.ResultsWe found a strongly negative response to the forest edge for bark-gleaning, sallying, terrestrial, and understory insectivores and a weakly negative response for arboreal frugivore-insectivores, foliage gleaning insectivores, and raptors. Densities of trees and the percentage canopy cover were higher in the interior, and the ambient noise was lower. In contrast, arboreal nectarivore-insectivores responded positively to the forest edge, where there was a higher vegetation cover in the ground layer, a lower tree density, and a higher level of ambient noise.ConclusionPlanners should avoid road development in forests of high conservation value to reduce impacts on biodiversity. Where avoidance is impossible, a number of potential mitigation methods are available, but more detailed assessments of these are needed before they are applied in this region.

Importance of the study context in community assembly processes: a quantitative synthesis of forest bird communities

AbstractSpecies composition is constrained by two upper‐level processes in ecological contexts where the dispersion of organisms is not severely limited, namely selection and ecological drift. This intuitive framework has motivated a constant flow of empirical models for linking the species matrix to the local environmental descriptors, in which the environment rarely explains more than 30–40% of the variation in species composition. In most cases, researchers only approximate the environmental axes that drive fitness differences between species, as the list of measured descriptors reflect both logistical constraints and hypothesis‐driven questions. Moreover, contextual factors, such as the species pool size (SPS) and the spatial extent of the sampled area, could moderate species–environment associations through sampling effects and dispersal limitations. This study's objective was to quantify the influence of contextual factors (i.e., related to the circumstances in which the study was conducted) on the species–environment association strength on the basis of a synthesis of 156 models of forest bird communities. Our results reveal that factors related to the SPS and the number of independent environmental axes studied affect our capacity to detect selection, whereas spatial factors such as the study's spatial extent and latitude are less important determinants. The study context explains almost a third of the observed variation in the strength of the species–environment association. We conclude that strong species–environment associations can be found for properly designed studies of forest bird communities, which raises the question of whether ecologists have underestimated the importance of selection in community assembly processes.

Bird diversity of the Cúcuta valley (Colombia) and biogeographical affinities with dry forest avifaunas of northern South America

ABSTRACT Seasonally dry tropical forest is the least known and most threatened ecosystem in the Neotropics. In December 2009, we surveyed 3 tropical dry forest remnants in the arid Cucuta valley, northeast Colombia. We recorded 140 of the 171 maximum species expected for the study area. Another 20 species were observed outside the inventory, totaling 160 species for the whole region. Results of the similarity analysis showed that the Cucuta valley avifauna is biogeographically more related to the arid inter-Andean river valleys than to the Caribbean plains of Colombia and the Caribbean lowlands of northern Venezuela. This pattern of biogeographical affinities of dry forest bird communities in northwestern South America seems to be explained by the effect of geographic distance rather than environmental differences shaping species composition (β-diversity) and phylogenetic relatedness (phyloβ-diversity) across space. Our results highlight the uniqueness and need to protect the topical dry forest remnants o...

Evaluation of the Forest Bird Community in the Breeding Season by using the Sound Recording System

Evaluation of the Forest Bird Community in the Breeding Season by using the Sound Recording System

Warning signals of biodiversity collapse across gradients of tropical forest loss

We evaluate potential warning signals that may aid in identifying the proximity of ecological communities to biodiversity thresholds from habitat loss—often termed “tipping points”—in tropical forests. We used datasets from studies of Neotropical mammal, frog, bird, and insect communities. Our findings provide only limited evidence that an increase in the variance (heteroskedasticity) of biodiversity-related parameters can provide a general warning signal of impending threshold changes in communities, as forest loss increases. However, such an apparent effect was evident for amphibians in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and Amazonian mammal and bird communities, suggesting that impending changes in some species assemblages might be predictable. We consider the potential of such warning signs to help forecast drastic changes in biodiversity.

Degradation in landscape matrix has diverse impacts on diversity in protected areas.

IntroductionA main goal of protected areas is to maintain species diversity and the integrity of biological assemblages. Intensifying land use in the matrix surrounding protected areas creates a challenge for biodiversity conservation. Earlier studies have mainly focused on taxonomic diversity within protected areas. However, functional and especially phylogenetic diversities are less studied phenomena, especially with respect to the impacts of the matrix that surrounds protected areas. Phylogenetic diversity refers to the range of evolutionary lineages, the maintenance of which ensures that future evolutionary potential is safeguarded. Functional diversity refers to the range of ecological roles that members of a community perform. For ecosystem functioning and long-term resilience, they are at least as important as taxonomic diversity.AimWe studied how the characteristics of protected areas and land use intensity in the surrounding matrix affect the diversity of bird communities in protected boreal forests. We used line-transect count and land-cover data from 91 forest reserves in Northern Finland, and land-cover data from buffer zones surrounding these reserves. We studied if habitat diversity and productivity inside protected areas, and intensity of forest management in the matrix have consistent effects on taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversities, and community specialization.ResultsWe found that habitat diversity and productivity inside protected areas have strong effects on all diversity metrics, but matrix effects were inconsistent. The proportion of old forest in the matrix, reflecting low intensity forest management, had positive effects on community specialization. Interestingly, functional diversity increased with increasing logging intensity in the matrix.ConclusionsOur results indicate that boreal forest reserves are not able to maintain their species composition and abundances if embedded in a severely degraded matrix. Our study also highlights the importance of focusing on different aspects of biodiversity.

Spatial distribution of bird communities in small forest fragments in central Europe in relation to distance to the forest edge, fragment size and type of forest

Species-rich communities of forest birds generally occupy larger rather than smaller forest fragments. However, the role of distance to the forest edge on the spatial distribution of bird communities within forest fragments remains largely unknown. In this study, we attempted to determine whether and how forest bird species distribution was related to distance from the forest edge or clearing (whichever was closer) taking into consideration effects of fragment size and vegetation. Based on data from a four year bird survey, we explored the spatial distribution of 29 common forest bird species within 24 forest fragments (0.1–255ha) in relation to distance to the forest edge, fragment size and forest vegetation. For this purpose we used generalized additive models (GAMs) with spline components and demonstrated the distance – frequency relationship for each bird species for whom it was relevant. Spatial distribution of the majority of common forest bird species was significantly affected by distance to the forest edge and/or fragment size and vegetation. The maximum frequency of species dependent on distance to the forest edge differed considerably along the line connecting forest edge to the centre of forest fragments. While frequency of the generalist species generally peaked somewhere close to the forest edge, frequency of sensitive forest resident species increased up to a distance of 150m or more from the forest edge. The effect of forest fragment size was consistently accompanied with the effect of distance to the forest edge with the exception of only two generalist species. It appears that a substantial part of the effect traditionally attributed to forest fragment size may be related to distance to the forest edge. Spatial distribution of almost all of the common bird species were further modified by forest vegetation at the local scale, but only rarely by prevalent forest vegetation of the respective forest fragment. Populations of forest resident species, such as Dryocopus martius, may be threatened by management intervention in the forest interior that leads to the forming of “internal” forest edges (e.g. clearcutting). The results documented that forest management based on clear-cut timber harvesting may increase the negative effects of forest fragmentation on distribution of the sensitive forest bird species within forest fragments. This negative effect could be reduced by adoption of timber harvesting methods that avoid the creation of clearings (e.g. single-tree selection), preferably accompanied by exemptions of individuals or patches of old trees from logging.

The relations between forest fragmentation and bird community body size and biodiversity and bird community body size.

The relations between forest fragmentation and bird community body size and biodiversity and bird community body size.

Robust predictive performance of indicator species despite different co-occurrence patterns of birds in natural and managed boreal forests

Indicator species are widely used biodiversity surrogates that allow the assessment of biodiversity without the expensive and time-consuming construction of species inventories. The selection of indicator species often relies on species co-occurrence patterns, which may be altered by anthropogenic disturbance such as forest harvesting, imposing a unique challenge to their application in managed forest. Here, we studied boreal bird communities in natural forests originating from wildfire and managed forests originating from clearcutting. We aimed to (1) compare species co-occurrence patterns in natural and clearcut forest stands, (2) select indicator species based on species co-occurrence patterns to predict avian diversity, and (3) evaluate the predictive performance of indicator species under both natural and clearcutting disturbance regimes using the same training data set and an independent testing data set. We found that species co-occurrence patterns differ substantially between natural and clearcut stands, suggesting that forest harvesting alters species-environment relationships and/or interspecific interactions. Consequently, we selected different sets of species as indicators of avian diversity based on data from natural or clearcut stands. However, according to internal and external evaluation, selecting indicator species using data from both natural and clearcut stands produced surrogates that predicted avian diversity accurately and precisely in both types of forests. Our results suggest that, despite forest harvesting altering species co-occurrence patterns, a comprehensive understanding of species co-occurrence patterns across natural and managed forests can be used to develop robust biodiversity surrogates. Our study shows that small sets of indicator species can represent the biodiversity of a wide range of species in ecosystems undergoing anthropogenic disturbance, which has important implications for the application of biodiversity surrogates for conservation.

Directional effects of biotic homogenization of bird communities in Mexican seasonal forests

ABSTRACT Biotic homogenization—the erosion of biological differences between ecosystems owing to human perturbation—is a trait of the global biodiversity crisis that can affect tropical dry forest biodiversity. We tested whether biotic homogenization was occurring in resident forest bird communities in west-central Mexico. We conducted point-count surveys to assess biotic dissimilarity between resident bird communities in tropical deciduous and oak forests in the upper Balsas River basin across 3 levels of anthropogenic perturbation: primary forest, second-growth forest, and human settlements. We detected a reduction in species richness and taxonomic dissimilarity with increasing anthropogenic effects, due to a directional pattern in which lowland species expanded their elevational distributions up into oak forests. These results point to a need to change agricultural strategies to mitigate impacts on natural vegetation cover and biodiversity.

Isolation with asymmetric gene flow during the nonsynchronous divergence of dry forest birds.

Dry forest bird communities in South America are often fragmented by intervening mountains and rainforests, generating high local endemism. The historical assembly of dry forest communities likely results from dynamic processes linked to numerous population histories among codistributed species. Nevertheless, species may diversify in the same way through time if landscape and environmental features, or species ecologies, similarly structure populations. Here we tested whether six co-distributed taxon pairs that occur in the dry forests of the Tumbes and Marañón Valley of northwestern South America show concordant patterns and modes of diversification. We employed a genome reduction technique, double-digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing, and obtained 4407-7186 genomewide SNPs. We estimated demographic history in each taxon pair and inferred that all pairs had the same best-fit demographic model: isolation with asymmetric gene flow from the Tumbes into the Marañón Valley, suggesting a common diversification mode. Overall, we also observed congruence in effective population size (Ne ) patterns where ancestral Ne were 2.9-11.0× larger than present-day Marañón Valley populations and 0.3-2.0× larger than Tumbesian populations. Present-day Marañón Valley Ne was smaller than Tumbes. In contrast, we found simultaneous population isolation due to a single event to be unlikely as taxon pairs diverged over an extended period of time (0.1-2.9Ma) with multiple nonoverlapping divergence periods. Our results show that even when populations of codistributed species asynchronously diverge, the mode of their differentiation can remain conserved over millions of years. Divergence by allopatric isolation due to barrier formation does not explain the mode of differentiation between these two bird assemblages; rather, migration of individuals occurred before and after geographic isolation.

The importance of various stages of succession in preservation of biodiversity among riparian birds in northern Iran.

Every stage of succession may provide certain species with habitat requirements which are impossible in other stages of succession. This study attempts to evaluate the different stages of succession in terms of composition and structure of bird populations in Hyrcanian forests. Bird-habitat relationships were investigated by comparing vegetation characteristics in three successional stages including late, initial stage, and urban areas. Bird richness, diversity, and abundance were measured within a 25-m radius of each of the 120 sampling points in various stages of succession and urban areas from May to April (2014) in the Ziarat catchment. This study indicated that every stage of succession may support certain species. Based on bird-habitat associations along the various stages of succession, two groups were distinguished. Conventional comparative analysis separated two groups of understory birds: interior specialists and edge specialists. The interior-specialist group was positively correlated with the number of dead trees, tall trees with high values of dbh and height and canopy cover. In contrast, edge specialists groups mainly included terrestrial insectivores and were positively correlated with open area and shrub cover, and percentage of shrub cover between 1 and 2m in height. In summary, bird communities in Hyrcanian forests are highly dynamic in different vegetation covers suggesting that it is critical to increase diverse and abundant bird populations by conserving forests composed of mosaics of differently disturbed stands and mature forest patches.

The importance of agricultural lands for Himalayan birds in winter

The impacts of land-use change on biodiversity in the Himalayas are poorly known, notwithstanding widespread deforestation and agricultural intensification in this highly biodiverse region. Although intact primary forests harbor many Himalayan birds during breeding, a large number of bird species use agricultural lands during winter. We assessed how Himalayan bird species richness, abundance, and composition during winter are affected by forest loss stemming from agriculture and grazing. Bird surveys along 12 elevational transects within primary forest, low-intensity agriculture, mixed subsistence agriculture, and intensively grazed pastures in winter revealed that bird species richness and abundance were greatest in low-intensity and mixed agriculture, intermediate in grazed pastures, and lowest in primary forest at both local and landscape scales; over twice as many species and individuals were recorded in low-intensity agriculture than in primary forest. Bird communities in primary forests were distinct from those in all other land-use classes, but only 4 species were unique to primary forests. Low-, medium-, and high-intensity agriculture harbored 32 unique species. Of the species observed in primary forest, 80% had equal or greater abundance in low-intensity agricultural lands, underscoring the value of these lands in retaining diverse community assemblages at high densities in winter. Among disturbed landscapes, bird species richness and abundance declined as land-use intensity increased, especially in high-intensity pastures. Our results suggest that agricultural landscapes are important for most Himalayan bird species in winter. But agricultural intensification-especially increased grazing-will likely result in biodiversity losses. Given that forest reserves alone may inadequately conserve Himalayan birds in winter, comprehensive conservation strategies in the region must go beyond protecting intact primary forests and ensure that low-intensity agricultural lands are not extensively converted to high-intensity pastures.

An importance of soil humidification in forming of avifauna of arboreal plantation in the Biosphere reserve «Askania Nova» (un-reproductive period)

With gradient analysis investigated the role of soil moisture in the formation of the modern population of birds in the reserve forest plantations. Soil moisture was divided into seven grades. For this purpose used grass cover and the coefficient of local moistening. His proposed PhD L. P. Travleev. This method allows knowing the degree of influence of soil moisture at the birds. We analyzed birds species composition, population, placement in space and power of influence factors (soil moisture). Investigations were carried out on the territory of the Biosphere Reserve «Askania Nova». We studied the birds which live in the reserve at the end of the summer, autumn and winter. This happened from 2006 to 2013 years. Specially was studied as permanently specific form of birds is found in a particular humidity. The degree of coupling was studied using the amount of information that transmits to the local bird humidification. For 68 species of birds are the options of the population density, coefficient koligatsii and data communication with the seven variants of soil moisture. For all kinds of set information «price» of each option dampening that contributes to the formation of a particular community of birds. Thus, the defined contribution to the formation of soil moisture forest bird communities. Species representation and density gradient within the test moisture is not in direct linear relationship from moisture and ranges from 11 (very coldly) to 50 species (moist soil). The density of the community varies from 0,5 birds / hectare (very dry) to 269 birds / hectare (fresh soil). The strongest link between the information and the formation of moisture gradient structure avifauna is typical in a fresh soil – bird on the edge, and wet – forest representatives. These types of humidification function is performed starting in the formation of two major blocks dendrophilous community. The steppe birds give way to forest representatives when the soil slightly moist. The main conclusion of our study includes the following: than wetter the soil the more species of birds lives in the forest; some graduation humidity are the most important for separate species of birds; it is very important for birds, there are places where one can drink water. Further invasive alien species can occur where the soil is moist. Forest with dry soil is already fully occupied by birds.

Effect of human-induced forest edges on the understory bird community in Hyrcanian forests in Iran: Implication for conservation and management

Understanding bird species responses to edge effect is critical for effective forest ecosystem management. We studied changes in diversity, density and abundance of bird communities and environmental variables along an edge-interior gradient in the Saadabad-Naharkhoran forested area located within the Hyrcanian forests in Iran. Bird species and environmental variables were recorded within a 25m radius of 81 sampling points. Distance from the edge had significant impact on the abundance of some species including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Treecreeper and bark gleaning birds. Among diversity and evenness indices, Simpson diversity index, Shannon diversity index, and N1 and N2 indices showed significant differences. Bird species showed different density patterns in our study. Some species such as Great Tit, Nightingale, Carrion Crow and Black Bird responded positively, and Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Wren and Blue Tit responded negatively to forest edge conditions. Bird community analysis divided bird species into two main groups. The first group includes Pheasant, Nightingale, Jay and Blackbird which showed positive responses to edge effect and had a high correlation with variables such as ground cover, number of trees with dbh 12–20cm and temperature. The second group consisted of Treecreeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, and Nuthatch which showed a negative response to the edge effect and a positive correlation with snag and log dbh, snag and log height, the number of trees with dbh 100–300cm, canopy cover, life litter depth and dbh of the trees. Results obtained from this study can be important in conservation and management of bird communities in remnant Hyrcanian forests. Also, protected areas in some parts of Hyrcanian forests can be selected based on environmental variables with a positive correlation with edge-eluding species.

The effects of forest-savanna-grassland gradients on bird communities of Chiquitano Dry Forests domain, in western Brazil.

Different vegetation types are distributed in mountains according to altitude, topography and soil. The composition and structure of bird communities in these areas can change in relation to the vegetation gradient, with particular communities occupying each habitat type. In this study we present the changes in composition, species richness and bird abundance over the gradient of forests, savannas and altitudinal grasslands of Maciço do Urucum, a mountainous region located in the Chiquitano Dry Forests domain in western Brazil. We recorded 165 bird species through qualitative and quantitative methods. Forested savannas, riparian forests and submontane forests presented the highest richness and abundance of birds, while arboreal savannas and altitudinal grasslands had intermediate and low values, respectively. The bird composition was similar between riparian and submontane forests, while other vegetation types present more dissimilar bird communities. Our results show differences in composition, richness and bird abundance among the vegetation types present at Maciço do Urucum, and highlight an important function of vegetation gradients for the conservation of bird communities in mountains. Additionally, this is the first study of the bird communities in the Brazilian Chiquitano Dry Forests, an important domain in the west of Brazil which has been poorly studied.

Assembly dynamics of a forest bird community depend on disturbance intensity and foraging guild

Summary Tree plantations occur globally and are often promoted as a strategy to supply wood products for an expanding human population while reducing pressure on natural forests. Herbicides can accelerate growth of crop trees by suppressing competing vegetation, but little information is available about potential trade‐offs with early seral biodiversity resulting from more intensive management. Using data collected over 5 years immediately following stand‐replacing disturbance (clear‐felling), we used a large‐scale experiment to test how environmental filtering influences dynamics of avian community assembly. We evaluated avian responses to three levels of plant cover reduction (light, moderate and intensive herbicide applications) in relation to a control without herbicide. Under the environmental filtering hypothesis, we expected reduced avian species richness and higher turnover as broadleaf plant cover decreases with increasing management intensity. We predicted that the most intensive treatments would exert strong negative effects on leaf‐gleaning insectivores, including several species of conservation concern due to long‐term population declines. Richness of leaf‐gleaning bird species was reduced by 23–52% over the 5 years on moderate (standard practice) vs. control treatments, but effects were substantially smaller for the non‐leaf‐gleaner guild in years 1–4 (8–25%) and disappeared by year 5 (0%). Both leaf‐gleaner and non‐leaf‐gleaner functional groups continued to colonize moderate and intensive treatments at higher probabilities than the control in Year 5 (range: 0·17–0·29), likely due to rapid vegetation recovery after herbicide applications ceased. Planted conifers were >35% taller and >70% larger in diameter in the two most intensive treatments, leading to substantially more wood volume produced per unit area than on stands without herbicide applications. Synthesis and applications. Under current management regimes, stand‐level trade‐offs between conservation of avian diversity and production of wood commodities may be less severe than previously recognized. However, in landscapes where biodiversity conservation rather than wood production is the primary goal, managers can adjust the trade‐off by making relatively small reductions in herbicide use that should have positive impacts on richness of leaf‐gleaning insectivorous birds.

Conservation of ecosystem services does not secure the conservation of birds in a Peruvian shade coffee landscape

SummaryAgricultural intensification in shade coffee farms has strong impacts on the structure and diversity of the agroforest, with negative consequences for forest specialist birds, understorey insectivores and their associated ecosystem services. Utilising variable distance transect counts, we sampled the bird community in a multiple-certified yet changing shade coffee landscape in the Peruvian East Andean foothills, to evaluate bird functional diversity and to assess potential impacts of coffee production on avian ecosystem services. To account for incomplete detection, we also calculated expected species richness per functional group, and to evaluate the effect of future species losses, we derived reduced bird communities by subsampling our data using a Monte Carlo procedure. We compared the relative abundances of functional groups based on preferred diets in the observed, expected and reduced bird communities to global functional signatures of tropical bird assemblages of forest, agroforests and agriculture. The birds in the shade coffee landscape were predominantly birds of secondary and disturbed forest habitats, indicating, as expected, strong human impact on the forest structure. Yet, the diet signatures of the observed, expected and simulated bird communities were not significantly different from global diet signatures of forest and agroforest bird communities of mixed tropical landscapes. Our results suggest that avian ecological function can be conserved at bird community level despite intensive human ecosystem use and associated losses of forest specialist and other less resilient bird species. These results underscore that forest management strategies or certification audits focused solely at ecosystem services may be insufficient to support conservation of rare or threatened bird species and that shade coffee systems can in no way replace the role of protected natural forests.

Effects of Connectivity on the Forest Bird Communities of Adjacent Fragmented Landscapes

Summary. We assessed bird sensitivity to forest fragmentation in two adjacent landscapes in the Atlantic Forest of southern Brazil. One landscape is naturally fragmented and has high connectivity, whereas the other is human-fragmented and has low connectivity. We tested whether the sensitivity of bird species to fragmentation depends more on the intrinsic characteristics of the birds than on landscape connectivity. Point counts were used to sample small and large forest remnants in each landscape. The abundance of each species in these remnants was used as a proxy for sensitivity. To test whether the two landscapes differ in connectivity, we compared the following landscape metrics: landscape shape index (LSI), proximity index (PROX) and connectance index (CONNECT). We analysed the sensitivity of 85 species, 51 of which occurred exclusively in one of the two landscapes. In the landscape with low connectivity we recorded a large number of sensitive species. Among the 34 species that occurred in both landsc...