Diversidad de aves en agropaisajes en la region norte de Nicaragua

Abstract

Avian diversity in agroscapes in Nicaragua’s north highlands. – Nicaragua’s highland forests are threatened by continual wood extraction and encroaching agriculture. Still, the effects of forest loss and fragmentation on avian communities remain little known. We used fixed-width point counts (distance sampling: 4843 detections during 86 h of observation) to characterize bird assemblages in agroforestry systems under five land uses (secondary and riparian forest, forest fallow, coffee plantations, and ‘open lands’, e.g., grass- and pasturelands with scattered trees) in three landscapes of Nicaragua highlands. Land use differences were significant: species richness and abundance were higher in coffee plantations and forest fallows, whereas disturbance-sensitive species were more abundant in secondary and riparian forest. Species and foraging guilds characteristic of closed-canopy forest were found in coffee plantations, but only at points near forest remnants.

Citation

Arendt, Wayne J.; Tórrez, Marvin; Vílchez, Sergio. 2012. Diversidad de aves en agropaisajes en la region norte de Nicaragua. Ornitología Neotropical. 23:113-131.