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Beauty before age: landscape factors influence bird functional diversity in naturally regenerating fragments, but regeneration age does not
Author(s) -
Dias Davi F. C.,
Ribeiro Milton C.,
Felber Yan T.,
Cintra Ana L. P.,
de Souza Natália S.,
Hasui Érica
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
restoration ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.214
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1526-100X
pISSN - 1061-2971
DOI - 10.1111/rec.12293
Subject(s) - regeneration (biology) , ecology , context (archaeology) , abundance (ecology) , fauna , ecosystem , geography , restoration ecology , biology , archaeology , microbiology and biotechnology
Effective ecological restoration actions should be able to recover ecosystem processes that influence community development in the long term. However, there is scarce information on how landscape factors promote or accelerate fauna recovery. We used a landscape framework to evaluate how functional groups respond to natural regeneration in a highly fragmented region of Atlantic Forest. Using bird functional groups sampled in 15 regenerating forest fragments, we built and ranked models using a model selection approach to test the relative effect of landscape variables on each group. Our results showed that bird community recovery is not determined by the duration of the regeneration process (i.e. forest age), but by how the species responds to the landscape context. Functional diversity and the abundance of the functional groups were mainly related to composition metrics, whereas the functional metric affected only specific groups. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the landscape level to ensure both the colonization of fauna and the restoration of ecological functions.