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1.
Context
Anthropogenic landscape simplification and natural habitat loss can negatively affect wild bees. Alternatively, anthropogenic land-use change may diversify landscapes, creating complementary habitats that maintain overall resource continuity and diversity.Objectives
We examined the effects of landscape composition, including land-cover diversity and percent semi-natural habitat, on wild bee abundance and species richness within apples, a pollinator-dependent crop. We also explored whether different habitats within diverse landscapes can provide complementary floral resources for bees across space and time.Methods
We sampled bees during apple bloom over 2 years within 35 orchards varying in surrounding landscape diversity and percent woodland (the dominant semi-natural habitat) at 1 km radii. To assess habitat complementarity in resource diversity and temporal continuity, we sampled flowers and bees within four unique habitats, including orchards, woodlands, semi-natural grasslands, and annual croplands, over three periods from April–June.Results
Surrounding landscape diversity positively affected both wild bee abundance and richness within orchards during bloom. Habitats in diverse landscapes had different flower communities with varying phenologies; flowers were most abundant within orchards and woodlands in mid-spring, but then declined over time, while flowers within grasslands marginally increased throughout spring. Furthermore, bee communities were significantly different between the closed-canopy habitats, orchards and woodlands, and the open habitats, grasslands and annual croplands.Conclusions
Our results suggest that diverse landscapes, such as ones with both open (grassland) and closed (woodland) semi-natural habitats, support spring wild bees by providing flowers throughout the entire foraging period and diverse niches to meet different species’ requirements.2.
Context
Butterflies have been continuously declining for several decades in Europe due to many factors, such as farming intensification. Rural landscapes have undergone dramatic changes leading to homogenized landscapes.Objectives
In this study, we investigated how landscape composition, structure and connectivity impact butterfly communities according to their ecological and biological traits.Methods
We made use of 5669 Lepidoptera surveys performed at 4525 distinct locations in lowland Central France. We considered 19 ecological groups based on habitat specialization, mobility, diet, voltinism or overwintering strategy. Generalized linear mixed-effect models were used to relate the species richness of these groups to landscape variables defined in circular zones with radius from 250 m to 5 km.Results
Richness of most species groups co-varied with landscape variables, with the exception of mobile, imago-overwintering, monophagous and polyphagous species. Habitat proportion explained more variation in butterfly diversity than habitat connectivity or habitat diversity. Moreover, the best proportion models were generally found for the 250-m circular zones. Thirteen species groups were disfavored by cropland amount. Except for forest specialists and high mobility group, no other group was more diverse in landscapes dominated by a single land cover type. Rather, for total diversity and 14 groups, species richness peaked for forest proportions varying between 40 and 80%, and for total diversity and nine groups for grassland proportions ranging from 30 to 60%.Conclusions
These results indicate that landscape homogenization is contributing to the ongoing decline in butterflies, and support preserving and (re)creating mosaics of grasslands and forests.3.
Kaisa J. Raatikainen Anna Oldén Niina Käyhkö Mikko Mönkkönen Panu Halme 《Landscape Ecology》2018,33(12):2169-2187
Context
Habitat loss is a major threat to biodiversity. It can create temporal lags in decline of species in relation to destruction of habitat coverage. Plant species specialized in semi-natural grasslands, especially meadows, often express such extinction debt.Objectives
We studied habitat loss and fragmentation of meadows and examined whether the changes in meadow coverage had caused an extinction debt on vascular plants. We also studied whether historical or present landscape patterns or contemporary environmental factors were more important determinants of species occurrence.Methods
We surveyed the plant species assemblages of 12 grazed and 12 mown meadows in Central Finland and detected the meadow coverages from their surroundings on two spatial scales and on three time steps. We modelled the effects of functional connectivity, habitat amount, and isolation on species richness and community composition.Results
We observed drastic and dynamic meadow loss in landscapes surrounding our study sites during the last 150 years. However, we did not find explicit evidence for an extinction debt in meadow plants. The observed species richness correlated with contemporary factors, whereas both contemporary factors and habitat availability during the 1960s affected community composition.Conclusions
Effective conservation management of meadow biodiversity builds on accurate understanding of the relative importance of past and present factors on species assemblages. Both mown and grazed meadows with high species richness need to be managed in the future. The management effort should preferably be targeted to sites located near to each other.4.
Context
The relative importance of habitat area and connectivity for species richness is often unknown. Connectivity effects may be confounded with area effects or they may be of minor importance as posited by the habitat-amount hypothesis.Objectives
We studied effects of habitat area and connectivity of linear landscape elements for plant species richness at plot level. We hypothesized that connectivity of linear landscape elements, assessed by resistance distance, has a positive effect on species richness beyond the effect of area and, further, that the relative importance of connectivity varies among groups of species with different habitat preferences and dispersal syndromes.Methods
We surveyed plant species richness in 50 plots (25 m2) located on open linear landscape elements (field margins, ditches) in eight study areas of 1 km2 in agricultural landscapes of Northwest Germany. We calculated the area of linear landscape elements and assessed their connectivity using resistance distance within circular buffers (500 m) around the plots. Effects of area and connectivity on species richness were modelled with generalised linear mixed models.Results
Species richness did not increase with area. Resistance distance had significant negative effects on total richness and on the richness of typical species of grasslands and wetlands. Regarding dispersal syndromes, resistance distance had negative effects on the richness of species with short-distance, long-distance and aquatic dispersal. The significant effects of resistance distance indicated that species richness increased with connectivity of the network of linear landscape elements.Conclusions
Connectivity is more important for plant species richness in linear landscape elements than area. In particular, the richness of plant species that are dispersal limited and confined to semi-natural habitats benefits from connective networks of linear landscape elements in agricultural landscapes.5.
Yohan?Charbonnier Pierre?Gaüzère Inge?van?Halder Julien?Nezan Jean-Yves?Barnagaud Hervé?Jactel Luc?Barbaro
Context
In heterogeneous landscapes, habitat complementation is a key process underlying the distribution of mobile species able to exploit non-substitutable resources over large home ranges. For instance, insectivorous bats need to forage in a diversity of habitat patches offering varied compositions and structures within forest landscape mosaics to fulfill their life cycle requirements.Objectives
We aimed at analyzing the effects of forest structure and composition measured at the stand and landscape scales on bat species richness, abundance and community composition in pine plantation forests of south-western France.Methods
We sampled bat communities at different periods of the summer season using automatic ultrasound recorders along a tree composition gradient from pine monocultures to pure oak stands. We analyzed bat species activity (as a proxy for bat abundance) and species richness with linear mixed models. Distance-based constrained ordinations were used to partition the spatio-temporal variation in bat communities.Results
Deciduous tree cover increased bat activity and modified community composition at both stand and landscape scales. Changes in bat communities were mostly driven by landscape-scale variables while bat activity responded more to stand-scale predictors.Conclusions
The maintenance of deciduous trees at both stand and landscape scales is likely critical for bat communities living in fast-growing conifer plantations, by increasing the availability and diversity of prey and roosting sites. Our study suggests that bats respond to forest composition at both stand and landscape scales in mosaic plantation landscapes, mainly through a resource complementation process.6.
Context
We address the issue of adapting landscapes for improved insect biodiversity conservation in a changing climate by assessing the importance of additive (main) and synergistic (interaction) effects of land cover and land use with climate.Objectives
We test the hypotheses that ant richness (species and genus), abundance and diversity would vary according to land cover and land use intensity but that these effects would vary according to climate.Methods
We used a 1000 m elevation gradient in eastern Australia (as a proxy for a climate gradient) and sampled ant biodiversity along this gradient from sites with variable land cover and land use.Results
Main effects revealed: higher ant richness (species and genus) and diversity with greater native woody plant canopy cover; and lower species richness with higher cultivation and grazing intensity, bare ground and exotic plant groundcover. Interaction effects revealed: both the positive effects of native plant canopy cover on ant species richness and abundance, and the negative effects of exotic plant groundcover on species richness were greatest at sites with warmer and drier climates.Conclusions
Impacts of climate change on insect biodiversity may be mitigated to some degree through landscape adaptation by increasing woody native vegetation cover and by reducing land use intensity, the cover of exotic vegetation and of bare ground. Evidence of synergistic effects suggests that landscape adaptation may be most effective in areas which are currently warmer and drier, or are projected to become so as a result of climate change.7.
Théophile Olivier Reto Schmucki Benoit Fontaine Anne Villemey Frédéric Archaux 《Landscape Ecology》2016,31(4):865-876
Context
Understanding the factors contributing to maintaining biodiversity is crucial to mitigate the impact of anthropogenic disturbances. Representing large proportions of green area in highly modified landscapes, residential gardens are often seen as local habitats that can contribute to larger networks of suitable environments at the landscape scale.Objectives
We investigated the impact of the landscape context on butterfly communities observed in residential gardens, taking into account garden characteristics, land-use types and presence of linear features in the surrounding landscape. We examined how species traits affected butterflies’ response to landscape context and habitat quality.Methods
We performed a cross-scale study, based on citizen science data documenting butterfly species composition and abundance in 920 gardens across France. We examined the effect of garden quality, the area of different land-use types and the length of linear elements measured at three scales within the surrounding landscape. Species were grouped according to their habitat preference and mobility.Results
Urbanization negatively affected total species richness and the abundance of butterfly in each group. This was related to declining habitat quality and reduced area of suitable habitat in the surrounding landscape. The magnitude of this effect, however, was negatively correlated with mobility, a trait related to habitat preference. The spatial scale at which landscape context best explained variation in butterfly abundance changed with species’ habitat preference.Conclusions
This study highlights the importance of preserving high quality habitats in altered landscapes and considering species’ mobility and habitat preference when assessing the impact of landscapes on butterfly communities.8.
Context
A recent hypothesis, the habitat amount hypothesis, predicts that the total amount of habitat in the landscape can replace habitat patch size and isolation in studies of species richness in fragmented landscapes.Objectives
To test the habitat amount hypothesis by first evaluating at which spatial scale the relationship between species richness in equal-sized sample quadrats and habitat amount was the strongest, and then test the importance of spatial configuration of habitat—measured as local patch size and isolation—when habitat amount was taken into account.Methods
A quasi-experimental setup with 20 habitat patches of dry calcareous grasslands varying in patch size, patch isolation and habitat amount at the landscape scale was established in the inner Oslo fjord, Southern Norway. We recorded species richness of habitat specialists of vascular plants in equal-sized sample quadrats and analysed the relationship between species richness, habitat amount in the landscape and patch size and isolation.Results
Although the total amount of habitat in a 3 km-radius around the local patch was positively related to species richness in the sample quadrats, local patch size had an additional positive effect, and the effect of patch size was higher when the amount of habitat within the 3 km-radius was high than when it was low.Conclusions
In our study system of specialist vascular plants in dry calcareous grasslands, we do not find support for the habitat amount hypothesis.9.
Romaike S. Middendorp Alvaro J. Pérez Armando Molina Eric F. Lambin 《Landscape Ecology》2016,31(7):1581-1599
Context
Natural regenerating forests are rapidly expanding in the tropics. Forest transitions have the potential to restore biodiversity. Spatial targeting of land use policies could improve the biodiversity benefits of reforesting landscapes.Objective
We explored the relative importance of landscape attributes in influencing the potential of tree cover increase to restore native woody plant biodiversity at the landscape scale.Methods
We developed land use scenarios that differed in spatial patterns of reforestation, using the Pangor watershed in the Ecuadorian Andes as a case study. We distinguished between reforestation through natural regeneration of woody vegetation in abandoned fallows and planted forests through managed plantations of exotic species on previously cultivated land. We simulated the restoration of woody plant biodiversity for each scenario using LANDIS-II, a process-based model of forest dynamics. A pair-case comparison of simulated woody plant biodiversity for each scenario was conducted against a random scenario.Results
Species richness in natural regenerating fallows was considerably higher when occurring in: (i) close proximity to remnant forests; (ii) areas with a high percentage of surrounding forest cover; and (iii) compositional heterogeneous landscapes. Reforestation at intermediate altitudes also positively affected restoration of woody plant species. Planted exotic pine forests negatively affected species restoration.Conclusions
Our research contributes to a better understanding of the recolonization processes of regenerating forests. We provide guidelines for reforestation policies that aim to conserve and restore woody plant biodiversity by accounting for landscape attributes.10.
Context
The habitat amount hypothesis has rarely been tested on plant communities. It remains unclear how habitat amount affect species richness in habitat fragments compared to island effects such as isolation and patch size.Objectives
How do patch size and spatial distribution compared to habitat amount predict plant species richness and grassland specialist plant species in small grassland remnants? How does sampling area affect the prediction of spatial variables on species richness?Methods
We recorded plant species density and richness on 131 midfield islets (small remnants of semi-natural grassland) situated in 27 landscapes in Sweden. Further, we tested how habitat amount, compared to focal patch size and distance to nearest neighbor predicted species density and richness of plants and of grassland specialists.Results
A total of 381 plant species were recorded (including 85 grassland specialist species). A combination of patch size and isolation was better in predicting both density and richness of species compared to habitat amount. Almost 45% of species richness and 23% of specialist species were explained by island biogeography parameters compared to 19 and 11% by the amount of habitat. A scaled sampling method increased the explanation level of island biogeography parameters and habitat amount.Conclusions
Habitat amount as a concept is not as good as island biogeography to predict species richness in small habitats. Priority in landscape planning should be on larger patches rather than several small, even if they are close together. We recommend a sampling area scaled to patch size in small habitats.11.
Context
Amphibians are declining worldwide and land use change to agriculture is recognized as a leading cause. Argentina is undergoing an agriculturalization process with rapid changes in landscape structure.Objectives
We evaluated anuran response to landscape composition and configuration in two landscapes of east-central Argentina with different degrees of agriculturalization. We identified sensitive species and evaluated landscape influence on communities and individual species at two spatial scales.Methods
We compared anuran richness, frequency of occurrence, and activity between landscapes using call surveys data from 120 sampling points from 2007 to 2009. We evaluated anuran responses to landscape structure variables estimated within 250 and 500-m radius buffers using canonical correspondence analysis and multimodel inference from a set of candidate models.Results
Anuran richness was lower in the landscape with greater level of agriculturalization with reduced amount of forest cover and stream length. This pattern was driven by the lower occurrence and calling activity of seven out of the sixteen recorded species. Four species responded positively to the amount of forest cover and stream habitat. Three species responded positively to forest cohesion and negatively to rural housing. Two responded negatively to crop area and diversity of cover classes.Conclusions
Anurans within agricultural landscapes of east-central Argentina are responding to landscape structure. Responses varied depending on species and study scale. Life-history traits contribute to responses differences. Our study offers a better understanding of landscape effects on anurans and can be used for land management in other areas experiencing a similar agriculturalization process.12.
Romain Carrié Emilie Andrieu Annie Ouin Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter 《Landscape Ecology》2017,32(8):1631-1642
Context
The local intensity of farming practices is considered as an important driver of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and its effect on biodiversity has been shown to interact with landscape complexity. But the influence of landscape-wide intensity of farming practices on biodiversity and its combined effect with landscape complexity have been little explored.Objective
In this study, we tested the interactive effect of the landscape-wide intensity of farming practices and landscape complexity on the local species richness and abundance of farmland wild bee communities.Methods
We captured wild bees in 96 crop fields and explored the effect of landscape-wide intensity of various farming practices along a gradient of landscape complexity (proportion of semi-natural habitats).Results
We found that species richness and abundance of wild bees were more positively influenced by landscape complexity in highly insecticide-sprayed landscapes than in less intensively managed landscapes. In contrast, we found that the positive effect of landscape complexity on bee species richness only occurred in landscapes with low nitrogen inputs.Conclusions
Our study demonstrates the interactive effects of landscape-wide farming intensity and landscape complexity in shaping the diversity of farmland wild bee communities. We conclude that the management of farming intensity at the landscape-scale could mitigate the effects of habitat loss on wild bee decline and would help to maintain pollination services in agricultural landscapes.13.
Synergistic effects of climate and land cover: grassland birds are more vulnerable to climate change
Marta A. Jarzyna Benjamin Zuckerberg Andrew O. Finley William F. Porter 《Landscape Ecology》2016,31(10):2275-2290
Context
Climate change is not occurring over a homogeneous landscape and the quantity and quality of available land cover will likely affect the way species respond to climate change. The influence of land cover on species’ responses to climate change, however, is likely to differ depending on habitat type and composition.Objectives
Our goal was to investigate responses of forest and grassland breeding birds to over 20 years of climate change across varying gradients of forest and grassland habitat. Specifically, we investigated whether (i) increasing amounts of available land cover modify responses of forest and grassland-dependent birds to changing climate and (ii) the effect of increasing land cover amount differs for forest and grassland birds.Methods
We used Bayesian spatially-varying intercept models to evaluate species- and community-level responses of 30 forest and 10 grassland birds to climate change across varying amounts of their associated land cover types.Results
Responses of forest birds to climate change were weak and constant across a gradient of forest cover. Conversely, grassland birds responded strongly to changing climatic conditions. Specifically, increasing temperatures led to higher probabilities of localized extinctions for grassland birds, and this effect was intensified in regions with low amounts of grassland cover.Conclusions
Within the context of northeastern forests and grasslands, we conclude that forests serve as a possible buffer to the impacts of climate change on birds. Conversely, species occupying open, fragmented grassland areas might be particularly at risk of a changing climate due to the diminished buffering capacity of these ecosystems.14.
Eduardo S. Mendes Carlos Fonseca Sara F. Marques Daniela Maia Maria João Ramos Pereira 《Landscape Ecology》2017,32(2):295-311
Context
The conversion of natural environments into agricultural land has profound effects on the composition of the landscape, often resulting in a mosaic of human-altered and natural habitats. The response to these changes may however vary among organisms. Bats are highly vagile, and their requirements often imply the use of distinct habitats, which they select responding to both landscape and local features.Objectives
We aimed to identify which features influence bat richness and activity within Baixo Vouga Lagunar, a heterogeneous landscape located on the Central-North Portuguese coast, and to investigate if that influence varies across a gradient of focal scales.Methods
We sampled bats acoustically, while simultaneously sampling insects with light traps. We assessed the relationships between species richness, bat activity, and activity of eco-morphological guilds with landscape and local features, across four scales.Results
Our results revealed both scale- and guild-dependent responses of bats to landscape and local features. At broader scales we found positive associations between open-space foraging bats and habitat heterogeneity and between edge-space foraging bats and greater edge lengths. Woodland cover and water availability at an intermediate scale and weather conditions and insect abundance at a local scale were the factors that mostly influenced the response variables.Conclusions
Globally, our results suggest that bats are sensitive to local resource availability and distribution, while simultaneously reacting to landscape features acting at coarser scales. Finally, our results suggest that the responses given by bats are guild-dependent, and some habitats act as keystone structures for bats within this mosaic.15.
Context
Traditionally, studies of habitat fragmentation have focused on spatial isolation of habitats. Meanwhile, the role of fragmentation of land ownership and hence of parcelization of habitats remains, particularly in relation to management of semi-natural grasslands, not well understood.Objective
We propose that, especially in a Danish context, fragmentation of land ownership leads to parcelization of semi-natural grassland habitats. This results in small parcel sizes, obstructing cost effective management in terms of grazing and mowing and consequently leads to encroachment of scrubs, threatening biodiversity.Methods
We applied national, spatially explicit information about land ownership, management, semi-natural grasslands and vegetation height to examine the relationships between parcel size, management and the proportion of scrubs on semi-natural grasslands.Results
Results from a regression analysis show that parcel size is significantly negatively related to proportion of scrubs; i.e. small parcels are associated with higher proportions of scrubs compared to large parcels. The results also show that the size of ownership parcels has a stronger explanatory power for the proportion of scrub compared to the size of habitat parcels, where ownership boundaries are not taken into account. Furthermore, parcels, with legal obligations for management, have significantly lower proportion of scrubs compared to parcels without management obligations.Conclusions
Efforts for conservation of and improvement of biodiversity on semi-natural grassland should pay increasing attention towards the importance of fragmentation of land ownership and parcelization of habitats. Our results point at the need for cross-farm cooperation to secure continuous grassland management to prevent scrub encroachment.16.
Juan Luis H. Cardós Isabel Martínez Victoria Calvo Gregorio Aragón 《Landscape Ecology》2016,31(9):1975-1995
Context
Mediterranean forests have been fragmented intensively over time, thereby yielding small and isolated forest remnants. They host a rich variety of epiphytes, which may be affected by landscape structure. Previous studies have analyzed the influence of habitat quality on these epiphytic communities, but there is little knowledge of the effects of other fragment features.Objectives
We evaluated the impacts of forest loss and fragmentation on epiphytic communities (lichens and bryophytes) at plot and fragment scales after controlling the variation in forest structure and management.Methods
We considered 40 fragments of dense oak forests in a human-modified landscape. We quantified their spatial attributes (size and shape), the quality of the surrounding matrix and the forest stand structure. We modeled community traits, and the presence and abundance of species at fragment and plot scales.Results
Fragment size, shape, and the quality of the surrounding matrix were key factors that affected epiphytic richness and diversity. Larger and more regularly shaped fragments hosted the richest and most diverse communities, possibly offering a larger core area and thus favoring the entry of typical forest species. A high-contrast matrix was only favorable in small fragments, probably allowing the arrival of propagules. The species-level response was highly variable.Conclusions
Landscape structure provides powerful explanations of the richness and diversity losses among epiphytes. Forest management should ensure the retention of the largest possible continuous forests. The management strategy of the matrix will depend on the conservation goal, since we observed different effects related with quality and fragment size.17.
Maria Vergara Samuel A. Cushman Fermín Urra Aritz Ruiz-González 《Landscape Ecology》2016,31(6):1241-1260
Context
Multispecies and multiscale habitat suitability models (HSM) are important to identify the environmental variables and scales influencing habitat selection and facilitate the comparison of closely related species with different ecological requirements.Objectives
This study explores the multiscale relationships of habitat suitability for the pine (Martes martes) and stone marten (M. foina) in northern Spain to evaluate differences in habitat selection and scaling, and to determine if there is habitat niche displacement when both species coexist.Methods
We combined bivariate scaling and maximum entropy modeling to compare the multiscale habitat selection of the two martens. To optimize the HSM, the performance of three sampling bias correction methods at four spatial scales was explored. HSMs were compared to explore niche differentiation between species through a niche identity test.Results
The comparison among HSMs resulted in the detection of a significant niche divergence between species. The pine marten was positively associated with cooler mountainous areas, low levels of human disturbance, high proportion of natural forests and well-connected forestry plantations, and medium-extent agroforestry mosaics. The stone marten was positively related to the density of urban areas, the proportion and extensiveness of croplands, the existence of some scrub cover and semi-continuous grasslands.Conclusions
This study outlines the influence of the spatial scale and the importance of the sampling bias corrections in HSM, and to our knowledge, it is the first comparing multiscale habitat selection and niche divergence of two related marten species. This study provides a useful methodological framework for multispecies and multiscale comparatives.18.
Context
Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation negatively affect amphibian populations. Roads impact amphibian species through barrier effects and traffic mortality. The landscape variable ‘accessible habitat’ considers the combined effects of habitat loss and roads on populations.Objectives
The aim was to test whether accessible habitat was a better predictor of amphibian species richness than separate measures of road effects and habitat loss. I assessed how accessible habitat and local habitat variables determine species richness and community composition.Methods
Frog and tadpole surveys were conducted at 52 wetlands in a peri-urban area of eastern Australia. Accessible habitat was delineated using a highway. Regressions were used to examine relationships between species richness and eleven landscape and local habitat variables. Redundancy analysis was used to examine relationships between community composition and accessible habitat and local habitat variables.Results
Best-ranked models of species richness included both landscape and local habitat variables. There were positive relationships between species richness and accessible habitat and distance to the highway, and uncertain relationships with proportion cover of native vegetation and road density. There were negative relationships between species richness and concreted wetlands and wetland electrical conductivity. Four species were positively associated with accessible habitat, whereas all species were negatively associated with wetland type.Conclusions
Barrier effects caused by the highway and habitat loss have negatively affected the amphibian community. Local habitat variables had strong relationships with species richness and community composition, highlighting the importance of both availability and quality of habitat for amphibian conservation near major roads.19.
Context
Urbanization has altered many landscapes around the world and created novel contexts and interactions, such as the rural–urban interface.Objectives
We sought to address how a forest patch’s location in the rural–urban interface influences which avian species choose to occur within the patch. We predicted a negative relationship between forest bird richness and urbanization surrounding the patch, but that it would be ameliorated by the area of tree cover in the patch and matrix, and that total tree-cover area would be more influential on forest bird species richness than area of tree cover in the focal patch alone.Methods
We conducted bird surveys in 44 forest patches over 2 years in Southeast Michigan and evaluated bird presence and richness relative to patch and matrix tree cover and development density.Results
We observed 43 species, comprised of 21 Neotropical migrants, 19 residents, and three short-distance migrants. Focal-patch tree-cover area and the matrix tree-cover area were the predominant contributors to a site’s overall forest-bird species richness at the rural–urban interface, but the addition of percent of over-story vegetation and percentage of deciduous tree cover influenced the ability of the patches to support forest species, especially Neotropical migrants. Development intensity in the matrix was unrelated to species richness and only had an effect in four species models.Conclusions
Although small forest patches remain an important conservation strategy in developed environments, the influence of matrix tree cover suggests that landscape design decisions in surrounding matrix can contribute conservation value at the rural–urban interface.20.