Agricultural landscapes as habitat for birds in central Chile

• DOI: 10.1186/s40693-017-0067-0
• Publication Date: 2017-05-31T15:05:49Z
• Authors: Andrés Muñoz-Sáez; Jorge F. Perez-Qu...; Cristián F. Estades
• Keywords: Agroecosystem; Breeding bird survey; Bird conservation; Insectivore; Land Cover; Agricultural land

Understanding the role of agroecosystems as habitat for wildlife is crucial long-term conservation planning, different crop stratification and landscape elements can influence bird communities, which are also affected by seasonality. The goal our study was to determine how agricultural landscapes varying in land cover characteristics affect richness abundance. Bird surveys were conducted at 110 locations within central Chile. surveyed areas characterized two scales (50 500 m radii) through direct observation photo-interpretation, during winter spring seasons. Generalized Linear Mixed Models used evaluate effects covers on species communities. Our results show that birds more abundant winter, particular insectivorous granivorous birds, significantly increased due provided hedgerows plot scale. We found abundance some Chile higher than spring, overall favored structural diversity including non-crop structures such hedgerows, thus may be relevant improving management temperate agroecosystems. suggest native vegetation proximity area seasonal changes communities larger scales, relationships warrant further study.