Date: January 22, 2019
Source: University of Göttingen
Researchers
of the Department of Conservation Biology at the University of Göttingen have
carried out research in Southwest Cameroon to assess which proportion of forest
would be necessary in order to provide sufficient habitat for rainforest bird
species. The results of the study were published in the journal Biological
Conservation.
The
Göttingen team investigated relationships between forest cover and bird species
richness using data from a 4,000 km2 large rainforest landscape. The study area
contains protected areas as well as smallholder agroforestry systems and
industrial oil palm plantations. The study documents minimum thresholds of
forest cover in farmland below which original bird communities begin to change
and where they are already dominated by species which don't depend on forest.
The data suggest that forest cover ought not to fall below 40 percent if
drastic losses in original bird species are to be avoided. Importantly, the
study also shows that highly specialised bird species already start to decline
significantly when the percentage of forest dips to as much as 70 percent; at
these forest cover levels, these birds are beginning to be replaced by
"generalists," ie birds that are at home in different habitats.
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