Rui-chang
Quana,
,
,
a CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest
Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of
Sciences (CAS), Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China
b Graduate School of Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing, China
c Ecology, Conservation, and Environment
Center (ECEC), Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS, 32 Jiaochang Donglu, Kunming,
Yunnan 650223, China
Abstract
Tropical forests support high levels of avian
diversity but these areas have been impacted by extensive deforestation. The
lowland tropical rainforest of Xishuangbanna in southwest China is one such
impacted hotspot. In this region, rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations have
replaced most of the original forest, but numerous small fragments of forest
remain. To assess the value of these fragments to avian diversity, we
classified the fifteen selected remnant forest patches into three size
categories, <1 ha, 1–3 ha, and 3–6 ha, and conducted avifauna
surveys. We found that 97 bird species inhabit the fragments and that bird
diversity increases with patch area. The resident species composition
similarity index was low among forest patches, both within and across size
categories, and also low between the wet and dry seasons. Ground insectivores,
frugivores and large bird species were the most vulnerable to habitat
fragmentation. Our study encouragingly shows that fragments can play an
important role in bird conservation in regions that now lack large tracts of
natural forest; however, current patches are too small to support stable annual
populations of some species, while others are more tolerant of fragmentation.
We discuss these findings and provide conservation strategies to improve bird
conservation within rubber plantations in southern China.
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