Effects of Different Land use Practices on Bird Communities
David Farris Dr. Jianqian Li
Dr. Yong Wang
Introduction
• Why study bird communities Importance to ecosystem –niche, ecosystem services Importance to humans-bird watching Sensitive to habitat change Birds are effected worldwide by urbanization and city
sprawl and other human changes to the environment • Why Nanjing?
Nanjing is one of the oldest Chinese cities large urban population-roughly 8 million examples of different types of land use are present around
the city
Research-Introduction
The main question:How are bird communities affected by different types of land use and anthropogenic change?
Methods
• Point counts were done to survey the species found in different land use types
• Points were selected at random by Ms. Dawn Lemke and grouped by type: Forest (27), Agriculture (15), Urban (52), and Park (12) in proportion to availability using Google Earth
Methods-2
• Points were surveyed in June 2012 early morning and late afternoon
• Birds were counted by audio and visually (a/v) for 10 minutes at each point No capture needed!
• Behavior, sex/age, and distance information was recorded when available
Some points were harder to get to than others…
Methods 3
• After the point counts data entered into Microsoft Excel statistical analysis with SPSS
• We examined: Total species detected total numbers of detections how affected by land use type and diversity change Compared habitat types
Results: Abundance • Total number of points: 109• Total individuals detected: 1595
-Audio:39.5% -Visual: 60.5%
0 1 2 3 4 50
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Distance Zone
Freq
uenc
y
Figure 2.
Figure 1.
39.5
60.5
AudioVisual
Results: Species Richness
• Total number of species: 53+• Average number of detections per
point:14.63±8.2• Average number of species detected per
point: 6.22±3.1 (sd)• Top 10 species accounted for ~80% of total
detections • >25 species had ≤ 5 detections
Tree S
parrow
Light-v
ented
Bulbul
Black-b
illed M
agpie
Red-ru
mped Sw
allow
Turtl
e Dove
Euras
ian Blac
kbird
White
-chee
ked St
arling
Spotted
DoveMyn
a
Masked
Laugh
ingthru
sh
Azure-
winge
d mag
pie
Large
Hawk-C
uckoo
Great T
it
Barn Sw
allow
Indian Cuck
oo
Common Koel
Vinous-thro
ated Parr
otbill
White
Wag
tail
Chinese Pond- H
eron
Brownish
-flanke
d Bush W
arbler
Black-c
rowned
Night H
eron
Ashy D
rongo
Red-bille
d Blue Mag
pie
Yello
w-rumped
Flyc
atcher
Common Pheasan
t
Long-t
ailed
Shrik
e
Swinhoe's
Minive
t
Yello
w-billed Gro
sbea
k
Black-n
aped
Oriole
Grey-ca
pped Gree
nfinch
Black D
rongo
Common Moorh
en
Grey-ca
pped W
oodpecke
r
Black B
ulbul
Black-t
hroate
d Tit
Common Kingfish
er
Hwamei
Japan
ese W
hite-ey
e
Little
Grebe
Yello
w Bittern
Euras
ian Cuck
oo
Great S
potted W
oodpecke
r
Manch
urian Bush
Warb
ler
Silky
stan
ling
Black-e
ared Kite
Brown Sh
rike
Cattle
Egret
Dollarb
ird
Grey-hea
ded La
pwing
Hair-cr
ested
Drongo
Large
Egret
woodpecke
r-a0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Graph 1. Species detections (number of individuals counted) in Nanjing, China. June 2012.
How Land Use Type Affects Abundance
ANOVA TEST: F=12.72; DF=4, 104; p< .001Forest (27), Agriculture (15), Urban (52, Park (12), and Wetlands (3)
How Land Use Type Affects Species Richness
Forest (27), Agriculture (15), Urban (52), Park (12), and Wetlands (3)
Effect of land use • Relative Abundance of the top 10 species
Agriculture Forest Park Urban Wetlands0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
Tree Sparrow
Light-vented Bulbul
Black-billed Magpie
Red-rumped Swallow
Turtle Dove
Eurasian Blackbird
White-cheeked Starling
Spotted Dove
Myna
Masked Laughingthrush
Habitat
Rel
ative
Abu
ndan
ce
Effects of land use on bird communities
Agriculture Forest Park Urban0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Azure- winged magpieLarge Hawk-CuckooSpotted DoveBarn SwallowGrey-capped Woodpecker
Land type
Num
ber o
f ind
ivid
uals
Simpson Diversity Index
Agriculture Forest Park Urban
0.88 0.93 0.93 0.73
Ds = 1 - Sum1i [ni*(ni-1)]/[N*(N-1)]
Proportional Similarity Measurement
Forest Agriculture Urban Park
Forest --- 0.61 0.55 0.7
Agriculture 0.61 --- 0.71 0.62
Urban 0.55 0.71 --- 0.57
Park 0.7 0.62 0.57 ---
Community Similarity-what percent of the bird community is the same in two different habitats?
Behavior of birds
c fl fo r s sw0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Behavior
Num
ber o
f ind
ivid
uals
Conclusions/Discussions
• Land type use affects the bird community -some birds thrive, while others decline
and will not be found in urban settings • Transition habits-wetlands and agriculture
have a higher species richness than urban, forest, and parks
Conclusions
• The most common birds detected were those that have a preference or at least can thrive in an urban setting
• It is also important to see what type of behavior different birds exhibit-whether or not they are using the habitat or merely flying over
Cultural Differences and Similarities
• Different ways of thinking • Language• Food• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (Bronzer
vs. Whitener)
Experiences in China
• Shanghai, China
Living at NFU and Nanjing
Getting Around
Acknowledgements
• Dr. Yong Wang • Dr. Jianqiang Li• Lisa Gardner • Dawn Lemke• Dr. Changhu Lu • Yang Pan• Yeduo Ding• Tianshi Xiong• Nanjing Forestry University• Alabama A&M University • National Science Foundation