Displaying all 13 publications

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  1. Han Y, Bai J, Zhang Z, Wu T, Chen P, Sun G, et al.
    Sci Total Environ, 2019 Nov 10;690:748-759.
    PMID: 31302540 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.508
    Many species of birds gradually adapt to urbanization and colonize cities successfully. However, their nest site selection and competitive relationship in an urban community remain little known. Understanding the impact of urbanization on birds and the competitive relationship has important implications for the conservation and management of wildlife in urban ecosystems. Here, we undertook a systematic study to quantify nests in all species of birds in an urbanizing area of Nanchang, China. A total of 363 nests were detected in surveys including 340 nests of 16 bird species and 23 unidentified species nests. We mainly analyzed 5 dominant breeding birds with a sample size of >10 during the two breeding seasons (From April to July in 2016 and 2017), which included the light-vented bulbul, Chinese blackbird, scaly-breasted munia, spotted dove and grey-capped greenfinch. Most birds (93.66%) nested in the tree of artificial green belts, which seems to be the best breeding habitat for urban birds. Our results suggested that birds' breeding success relies on the trade-off between the benefit and the expense of specific stresses from habitats. The nest site selection of birds is also affected by the life habit of urban predators. Furthermore, competition among species can influence their distributions and utilization of environmental resources when birds nest in cities. We confirmed that the niche differentiation of five bird species in an urban environment makes them coexist successfully by utilizing various resources.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology*
  2. Clink DJ, Groves T, Ahmad AH, Klinck H
    PLoS One, 2021;16(2):e0246564.
    PMID: 33592004 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246564
    Great argus pheasants are known for their elaborate visual mating displays, but relatively little is known about their general ecology. The use of passive acoustic monitoring-which relies on long-term autonomous recorders-can provide insight into the behavior of visually cryptic, yet vocal species such as the great argus. Here we report the results of an analysis of vocal behavior of the Bornean great argus (Argusianus argus grayi) in Sabah, Malaysia, using data collected with 11 autonomous recording units. Great argus regularly emitted two call types, the long call and the short call, and we found that although both call types were emitted throughout the day, the short calls were more likely to occur during the morning hours (06:00-12:00LT). Great argus were less likely to call if there was rain, irrespective of the time of day. A substantial portion of calls at our site (~20%) were emitted between the hours of 18:00-06:00LT. We found that for nighttime calls, calling activity increased during new moon periods and decreased during periods of rain. We attribute the negative influence of rain on calling to increased energetic costs of thermoregulation during wet periods, and propose that the influence of the lunar cycle may be related to increased predation risk during periods with high levels of moonlight. Little is known about the behavioral ecology of great argus on Borneo, so it is difficult to know if the results we report are typical, or if we would see differences in calling activity patterns depending on breeding season or changes in food availability. We advocate for future studies of great argus pheasant populations using paired camera and acoustic recorders, which can provide further insight into the behavior of this cryptic species.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology*
  3. Wang S, Loreau M, Arnoldi JF, Fang J, Rahman KA, Tao S, et al.
    Nat Commun, 2017 May 19;8:15211.
    PMID: 28524860 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15211
    The spatial scaling of stability is key to understanding ecological sustainability across scales and the sensitivity of ecosystems to habitat destruction. Here we propose the invariability-area relationship (IAR) as a novel approach to investigate the spatial scaling of stability. The shape and slope of IAR are largely determined by patterns of spatial synchrony across scales. When synchrony decays exponentially with distance, IARs exhibit three phases, characterized by steeper increases in invariability at both small and large scales. Such triphasic IARs are observed for primary productivity from plot to continental scales. When synchrony decays as a power law with distance, IARs are quasilinear on a log-log scale. Such quasilinear IARs are observed for North American bird biomass at both species and community levels. The IAR provides a quantitative tool to predict the effects of habitat loss on population and ecosystem stability and to detect regime shifts in spatial ecological systems, which are goals of relevance to conservation and policy.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology*
  4. Edwards DP, Ansell FA, Ahmad AH, Nilus R, Hamer KC
    Conserv Biol, 2009 Dec;23(6):1628-33.
    PMID: 19775274 DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01330.x
    The recent advent of carbon crediting has led to a rapid rise in biosequestration projects that seek to remove carbon from the atmosphere through afforestation and forest rehabilitation. Such projects also present an important potential opportunity to reverse biodiversity losses resulting from deforestation and forest degradation, but the biodiversity benefits of different forms of biosequestration have not been considered adequately. We captured birds in mist nets to examine the effects of rehabilitation of logged forest on birds in Sabah, Borneo, and to test the hypothesis that rehabilitation restores avian assemblages within regenerating forest to a condition closer to that seen in unlogged forest. Species richness and diversity were similar in unlogged and rehabilitated forest, but significantly lower in naturally regenerating forest. Rehabilitation resulted in a relatively rapid recovery of populations of insectivores within logged forest, especially those species that forage by sallying, but had a marked adverse effect on frugivores and possibly reduced the overall abundance of birds within regenerating forest. In view of these results, we advocate increased management for heterogeneity within rehabilitated forests, but we strongly urge an increased role for forest rehabilitation in the design and implementation of a biodiversity-friendly carbon-offsetting market.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology*
  5. Beaudrot L, Struebig MJ, Meijaard E, van Balen S, Husson S, Young CF, et al.
    Am J Primatol, 2013 Feb;75(2):170-85.
    PMID: 23184656 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.22095
    For several decades, primatologists have been interested in understanding how sympatric primate species are able to coexist. Most of our understanding of primate community ecology derives from the assumption that these animals interact predominantly with other primates. In this study, we investigate to what extent multiple community assembly hypotheses consistent with this assumption are supported when tested with communities of primates in isolation versus with communities of primates, birds, bats, and squirrels together. We focus on vertebrate communities on the island of Borneo, where we examine the determinants of presence or absence of species, and how these communities are structured. We test for checkerboard distributions, guild proportionality, and Fox's assembly rule for favored states, and predict that statistical signals reflecting interactions between ecologically similar species will be stronger when nonprimate taxa are included in analyses. We found strong support for checkerboard distributions in several communities, particularly when taxonomic groups were combined, and after controlling for habitat effects. We found evidence of guild proportionality in some communities, but did not find significant support for Fox's assembly rule in any of the communities examined. These results demonstrate the presence of vertebrate community structure that is ecologically determined rather than randomly generated, which is a finding consistent with the interpretation that interactions within and between these taxonomic groups may have shaped species composition in these communities. This research highlights the importance of considering the broader vertebrate communities with which primates co-occur, and so we urge primatologists to explicitly consider nonprimate taxa in the study of primate ecology.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology*
  6. Pandha SK, Thapliyal JP
    Endocrinol. Jpn., 1969 Feb;16(1):157-61.
    PMID: 5394323
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology*
  7. Edwards DP, Woodcock P, Edwards FA, Larsen TH, Hsu WW, Benedick S, et al.
    Ecol Appl, 2012 Mar;22(2):561-71.
    PMID: 22611854 DOI: 10.1890/11-1362.1
    A key driver of rain forest degradation is rampant commercial logging. Reduced-impact logging (RIL) techniques dramatically reduce residual damage to vegetation and soils, and they enhance the long-term economic viability of timber operations when compared to conventionally managed logging enterprises. Consequently, the application of RIL is increasing across the tropics, yet our knowledge of the potential for RIL also to reduce the negative impacts of logging on biodiversity is minimal. We compare the impacts of RIL on birds, leaf-litter ants, and dung beetles during a second logging rotation in Sabah, Borneo, with the impacts of conventional logging (CL) as well as with primary (unlogged) forest. Our study took place 1-8 years after the cessation of logging. The species richness and composition of RIL vs. CL forests were very similar for each taxonomic group. Both RIL and CL differed significantly from unlogged forests in terms of bird and ant species composition (although both retained a large number of the species found in unlogged forests), whereas the composition of dung beetle communities did not differ significantly among forest types. Our results show little difference in biodiversity between RIL and CL over the short-term. However, biodiversity benefits from RIL may accrue over longer time periods after the cessation of logging. We highlight a severe lack of studies investigating this possibility. Moreover, if RIL increases the economic value of selectively logged forests (e.g., via REDD+, a United Nations program: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries), it could help prevent them from being converted to agricultural plantations, which results in a tremendous loss of biodiversity.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology
  8. Sodhi NS, Wilcove DS, Lee TM, Sekercioglu CH, Subaraj R, Bernard H, et al.
    Conserv Biol, 2010 Oct;24(5):1290-8.
    PMID: 20345403 DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01495.x
    There are few empirical data, particularly collected simultaneously from multiple sites, on extinctions resulting from human-driven land-use change. Southeast Asia has the highest deforestation rate in the world, but the resulting losses of biological diversity remain poorly documented. Between November 2006 and March 2008, we conducted bird surveys on six landbridge islands in Malaysia and Indonesia. These islands were surveyed previously for birds in the early 1900 s, when they were extensively forested. Our bird inventories of the islands were nearly complete, as indicated by sampling saturation curves and nonparametric true richness estimators. From zero (Pulau Malawali and Pulau Mantanani) to 15 (Pulau Bintan) diurnal resident landbird species were apparently extirpated since the early 1900 s. Adding comparable but published extinction data from Singapore to our regression analyses, we found there were proportionally fewer forest bird extinctions in areas with greater remaining forest cover. Nevertheless, the statistical evidence to support this relationship was weak, owing to our unavoidably small sample size. Bird species that are restricted to the Indomalayan region, lay few eggs, are heavier, and occupy a narrower habitat breadth, were most vulnerable to extinction on Pulau Bintan. This was the only island where sufficient data existed to analyze the correlates of extinction. Forest preservation and restoration are needed on these islands to conserve the remaining forest avifauna. Our study of landbridge islands indicates that deforestation may increasingly threaten Southeast Asian biodiversity.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology*
  9. Seidler TG, Plotkin JB
    PLoS Biol, 2006 Oct;4(11):e344.
    PMID: 17048988
    Theories of tropical tree diversity emphasize dispersal limitation as a potential mechanism for separating species in space and reducing competitive exclusion. We compared the dispersal morphologies, fruit sizes, and spatial distributions of 561 tree species within a fully mapped, 50-hectare plot of primary tropical forest in peninsular Malaysia. We demonstrate here that the extent and scale of conspecific spatial aggregation is correlated with the mode of seed dispersal. This relationship holds for saplings as well as for mature trees. Phylogenetically independent contrasts confirm that the relationship between dispersal and spatial pattern is significant even after controlling for common ancestry among species. We found the same qualitative results for a 50-hectare tropical forest plot in Panama. Our results provide broad empirical evidence for the importance of dispersal mode in establishing the long-term community structure of tropical forests.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology
  10. Edwards DP, Larsen TH, Docherty TD, Ansell FA, Hsu WW, Derhé MA, et al.
    Proc Biol Sci, 2011 Jan 7;278(1702):82-90.
    PMID: 20685713 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1062
    Southeast Asia is a hotspot of imperiled biodiversity, owing to extensive logging and forest conversion to oil palm agriculture. The degraded forests that remain after multiple rounds of intensive logging are often assumed to be of little conservation value; consequently, there has been no concerted effort to prevent them from being converted to oil palm. However, no study has quantified the biodiversity of repeatedly logged forests. We compare the species richness and composition of birds and dung beetles within unlogged (primary), once-logged and twice-logged forests in Sabah, Borneo. Logging had little effect on the overall richness of birds. Dung beetle richness declined following once-logging but did not decline further after twice-logging. The species composition of bird and dung beetle communities was altered, particularly after the second logging rotation, but globally imperiled bird species (IUCN Red List) did not decline further after twice-logging. Remarkably, over 75 per cent of bird and dung beetle species found in unlogged forest persisted within twice-logged forest. Although twice-logged forests have less biological value than primary and once-logged forests, they clearly provide important habitat for numerous bird and dung beetle species. Preventing these degraded forests from being converted to oil palm should be a priority of policy-makers and conservationists.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology*
  11. Ibrahim N, Kutschera U
    Theory Biosci, 2013 Dec;132(4):267-75.
    PMID: 23975643 DOI: 10.1007/s12064-013-0192-5
    Over many years of his life, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) explored the tropical forests of Malaysia, collecting numerous specimens, including hundreds of birds, many of them new to science. Subsequently, Wallace published a series of papers on systematic ornithology, and discovered a new species on top of a volcano on Ternate, where he wrote, in 1858, his famous essay on natural selection. Based on this hands-on experience, and an analysis of an Archaeopteryx fossil, Wallace suggested that birds may have descended from dinosaurian ancestors. Here, we describe the "dinosaur-bird hypothesis" that originated with the work of Thomas H. Huxley (1825-1895). We present the strong evidence linking theropod dinosaurs to birds, and briefly outline the long and ongoing controversy around this concept. Dinosaurs preserving plumage, nesting sites and trace fossils provide overwhelming evidence for the dinosaurian origin of birds. Based on these recent findings of paleontological research, we conclude that extant birds indeed descended, with some modifications, from small, Mesozoic theropod dinosaurs. In the light of Wallace's view of bird origins, we critically evaluate recent opposing views to this idea, including Ernst Mayr's (1904-2005) arguments against the "dinosaur-bird hypothesis", and document that this famous ornithologist was not correct in his assessment of this important aspect of vertebrate evolution.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology*
  12. Hill JK, Gray MA, Khen CV, Benedick S, Tawatao N, Hamer KC
    Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 2011 Nov 27;366(1582):3265-76.
    PMID: 22006967 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0050
    Large areas of tropical forest now exist as remnants scattered across agricultural landscapes, and so understanding the impacts of forest fragmentation is important for biodiversity conservation. We examined species richness and nestedness among tropical forest remnants in birds (meta-analysis of published studies) and insects (field data for fruit-feeding Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) and ants). Species-area relationships were evident in all four taxa, and avian and insect assemblages in remnants typically were nested subsets of those in larger areas. Avian carnivores and nectarivores and predatory ants were more nested than other guilds, implying that the sequential loss of species was more predictable in these groups, and that fragmentation alters the trophic organization of communities. For butterflies, the ordering of fragments to achieve maximum nestedness was by fragment area, suggesting that differences among fragments were driven mainly by extinction. In contrast for moths, maximum nestedness was achieved by ordering species by wing length; species with longer wings (implying better dispersal) were more likely to occur at all sites, including low diversity sites, suggesting that differences among fragments were driven more strongly by colonization. Although all four taxa exhibited high levels of nestedness, patterns of species turnover were also idiosyncratic, and thus even species-poor sites contributed to landscape-scale biodiversity, particularly for insects.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology*
  13. Ewers RM, Boyle MJ, Gleave RA, Plowman NS, Benedick S, Bernard H, et al.
    Nat Commun, 2015 Apr 13;6:6836.
    PMID: 25865801 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7836
    Invertebrates are dominant species in primary tropical rainforests, where their abundance and diversity contributes to the functioning and resilience of these globally important ecosystems. However, more than one-third of tropical forests have been logged, with dramatic impacts on rainforest biodiversity that may disrupt key ecosystem processes. We find that the contribution of invertebrates to three ecosystem processes operating at three trophic levels (litter decomposition, seed predation and removal, and invertebrate predation) is reduced by up to one-half following logging. These changes are associated with decreased abundance of key functional groups of termites, ants, beetles and earthworms, and an increase in the abundance of small mammals, amphibians and insectivorous birds in logged relative to primary forest. Our results suggest that ecosystem processes themselves have considerable resilience to logging, but the consistent decline of invertebrate functional importance is indicative of a human-induced shift in how these ecological processes operate in tropical rainforests.
    Matched MeSH terms: Birds/physiology
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