Quantifying Effects of Spatial Heterogeneity of Farmlands on Bird Species Richness by Means of Similarity Index Pairwise
Author
Source
International Journal of Biodiversity
Issue
Vol. 2013, Issue 2013 (31 Dec. 2013), pp.1-9, 9 p.
Publisher
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Publication Date
2013-05-23
Country of Publication
Egypt
No. of Pages
9
Main Subjects
Natural & Life Sciences (Multidisciplinary)
Biology
Abstract EN
Many studies have shown how intensification of farming is the main cause of loss biodiversity in these environments.
During the last decades, agroecosystems in Europe have changed drastically, mainly due to mechanization of agriculture.
In this work, species richness in bird communities was examined on a gradient of spatial heterogeneity of farmlands, in order to quantify its effects.
Four categories of farmland spatial heterogeneity were defined, based on landscape and landuse parameters.
The impact of features increasing the spatial heterogeneity was quantified comparing the similarity indexes between bird communities in several farmlands of Central Italy.
The effects of environmental variables on bird richness were analyzed using GLM.
The results highlighted that landscape features surrogates of high nature values (HNVs) of farmlands can increase more than 50% the bird species richness.
The features more related to bird richness were hedgerows, scattered shrubs, uncultivated patches, and powerlines.
The results confirm that the approach based on HNV for evaluating the farmlands is also suitable in order to study birds’ diversity.
However, some species are more sensitive to heterogeneity, while other species occupy mainly homogeneous farmlands.
As a consequence, different conservation methods must be considered for each farmland bird species.
American Psychological Association (APA)
Morelli, Federico. 2013. Quantifying Effects of Spatial Heterogeneity of Farmlands on Bird Species Richness by Means of Similarity Index Pairwise. International Journal of Biodiversity،Vol. 2013, no. 2013, pp.1-9.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-507709
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Morelli, Federico. Quantifying Effects of Spatial Heterogeneity of Farmlands on Bird Species Richness by Means of Similarity Index Pairwise. International Journal of Biodiversity No. 2013 (2013), pp.1-9.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-507709
American Medical Association (AMA)
Morelli, Federico. Quantifying Effects of Spatial Heterogeneity of Farmlands on Bird Species Richness by Means of Similarity Index Pairwise. International Journal of Biodiversity. 2013. Vol. 2013, no. 2013, pp.1-9.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-507709
Data Type
Journal Articles
Language
English
Notes
Includes bibliographical references
Record ID
BIM-507709