Avifauna and Anthropogenic Forest Disturbance in Two Biodiversity Hotspots.

Martin, Thomas Edward (2009) Avifauna and Anthropogenic Forest Disturbance in Two Biodiversity Hotspots. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

The primary objective of this thesis is to examine the impact of anthropogenic forest disturbance on avifaunal communities in two biodiversity hotspots- lowland tropical forest in the Lambusango Forest Reserve within the Wallacean archipelago and Neotropical cloud forest in Cusuco National Park, Mesoamerica. Both these study areas possess diverse bird communities with high rates of endemism, yet are under severe pressure from anthropogenic activity. The research also evaluates the optimal methodologies for surveying bird communities in these poorly studied ecosystems and examines the extent to which under-managed protected areas can be successful in preserving bird species with high conservational importance, and the habitat associations of these avifaunal communities. Results demonstrate that point count methods are more effective than mist-nets for describing cloud forest bird communities. Research also shows that many Wallacean species are tolerant of moderate habitat disturbance, although endemic species are sensitive to heavy disturbance. Cloud forest endemics appear to be sensitive to moderate disturbance, although protected areas can be effective in preserving these species even where severely undermanaged. Endemic birds in the two hotspots display different responses to habitat disturbance; this may be due to differential community compositions, niche competition and biogeography. Research has also demonstrated that richness and composition of Wallacean bird communities have strong associations with a range of habitat variables which can be used to provide proxy data for identifying priority conservation areas when appropriate scales of data aggregation are used. The findings of this thesis demonstrate the value of using multiple research perspectives to fully investigate geographical problems.