Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Avian abundance thresholds, human-altered landscapes, and the challenge of assemblage-level conservation

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Landscape Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 26 March 2016

Abstract

Context

Land-use change is a global phenomenon with potential to generate abrupt spatial changes in species’ distributions.

Objectives

We assessed whether theory about the internal structure of bird species’ geographic ranges can be refined to reflect abrupt changes in distribution and abundance associated with human influences on landscapes, and whether the prevalence and diversity of bird–landscape threshold relationships may significantly complicate assemblage-level avian conservation.

Methods

For three large regions in the United States, we used the North American Breeding Bird Survey, U.S. National Land Cover Data, and multivariate adaptive regression splines to assess whether land bird species’ abundances were associated with landscape composition and configuration in a threshold fashion.

Results

Threshold relationships between abundance and landscape characteristics were exhibited by 42–60 % of the species studied. The relationships were evident for five land types and five habitat guilds. We observed threshold relationships for more taxonomically diverse groups of bird species, a broader set of land types, and larger geographic extents than have been considered to date.

Conclusions

Avian distribution and abundance theory can be refined by articulating that characteristics of human-altered landscapes have the potential to be widespread and biologically important contributors to abrupt spatial change in species’ abundances. Our findings also expose bird–landscape threshold relationships as pervasive and diverse patterns that impose a much more complicated set of circumstances for assemblage-level conservation of birds than has been widely recognized. To cope with these complications, landscape planners and managers can use optimization analyses, multispecies frameworks, regulatory limits, and multivariate change-point analyses.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • André J, Haddon M, Pecl GT (2010) Modelling climate-change-induced nonlinear thresholds in cephalopod population dynamics. Glob Change Biol 16:2866–2875

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks-Leite C, Pardini R, Tambosi LR, Pearse WD, Bueno AA, Bruscagin RT, Condez TH, Dixo M, Igari AT, Martensen AC, Metzger JP (2014) Using ecological thresholds to evaluate the costs and benefits of set-asides in a biodiversity hotspot. Science 345:1041–1045

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barnosky AD, Hadly EA, Bascompte J, Berlow EL, Brown JH, Fortelius M, Getz WM, Harte J, Hastings A, Marquet PA, Martinez ND, Mooers A, Roopnarine P, Vermeij G, Williams JW, Gillespie R, Kitzes J, Marshall C, Matzke N, Mindell DP, Revilla E, Smith AB (2012) Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere. Nature 486:52–58

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bart J, Klosiewski SP (1989) Use of presence–absence to measure changes in avian density. J Wildl Manag 53:847–852

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker DA, Wood PB, Strager MP, Mazzarella C (2015) Impacts of mountaintop mining on terrestrial ecosystem integrity: identifying landscape thresholds for avian species in the central Appalachians, United States. Landscape Ecol 30:339–356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bestelmeyer BT, Duniway MC, James DK, Burkett LM, Havstad KM (2013) A test of critical thresholds and their indicators in a desertification-prone ecosystem: more resilience than we thought. Ecol Lett 16:339–345

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Betts MG, Forbes GJ, Diamond AW, Taylor PD (2006) Independent effects of fragmentation on forest songbirds: an organism-based approach. Ecol Appl 16:1076–1089

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Betts MG, Hagar JC, Rivers JW, Alexander JD, McGarigal K, McComb BC (2010) Thresholds in forest bird occurrence as a function of the amount of early-seral broadleaf forest at landscape scales. Ecol Appl 20:2116–2130

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Betts MG, Fahrig L, Hadley AS, Halstead KE, Bowman J, Robinson WD, Wiens JA, Lindenmayer DB (2014) A species-centered approach for uncovering generalities in organism responses to habitat loss and fragmentation. Ecography 37:517–527

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown JH (1984) On the relationship between abundance and distribution of species. Am Nat 124:255–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown JH (1995) Macroecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown JH, Mehlman DW, Stevens GC (1995) Spatial variation in abundance. Ecology 76:2028–2043

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown JH, Stevens GC, Kaufman DM (1996) The geographic range: size, shape, boundaries, and internal structure. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 27:597–623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler R, Angelstam P, Ekelund P, Schlaeffer R (2004) Dead wood threshold values for the three-toed woodpecker presence in boreal and sub-alpine forest. Biol Conserv 119:305–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlson A (2000) The effect of habitat loss on a deciduous forest specialist species: the white-backed woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos). For Ecol Manag 131:215–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunning JB (2008) CRC handbook of avian body masses. CRC Press, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Fahrig L (1997) Relative effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on population extinction. J Wildl Manag 61:603–610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fahrig L (2002) Effect of habitat fragmentation on the extinction threshold: a synthesis. Ecol Appl 12:346–353

    Google Scholar 

  • Ficetola GF, Denoël M (2009) Ecological thresholds: an assessment of methods to identify abrupt changes in species–habitat relationships. Ecography 32:1075–1084

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flather CH (1996) Fitting species-accumulation functions and assessing regional land use impacts on avian diversity. J Biogeogr 23:155–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flather CH, Bevers M (2002) Patchy reaction–diffusion and population abundance: the relative importance of habitat amount and arrangement. Am Nat 159:40–56

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Flather CH, Sauer JR (1996) Using landscape ecology to test hypotheses about large-scale abundance patterns in migratory birds. Ecology 77:28–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman JH (1991) Multivariate adaptive regression splines. Ann Stat 19:1–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaston KJ (2003) The structure and dynamics of geographic ranges. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Groffman PM, Baron JS, Blett T, Gold AJ, Goodman I, Gunderson LH, Levinson BM, Palmer MA, Paerl HW, Peterson GD, Poff NL, Rejeski DW, Reynolds JF, Turner MG, Weathers KC, Wiens J (2006) Ecological thresholds: the key to successful environmental management or an important concept with no practical application? Ecosystems 9:1–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gutzwiller KJ, Barrow WC (2002) Does bird community structure vary with landscape patchiness? A Chihuahuan Desert perspective. Oikos 98:284–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins BA, Porter EE, Diniz-Filho JAF (2003) Productivity and history as predictors of the latitudinal diversity gradient of terrestrial birds. Ecology 84:1608–1623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Homer C, Dewitz J, Fry J, Coan M, Hossain N, Larson C, Herold N, McKerrow A, VanDriel JN, Wickham J (2007) Completion of the 2001 National Land Cover Database for the conterminous United States. Photogramm Eng Remote Sensing 73:337–341

    Google Scholar 

  • Huggett AJ (2005) The concept and utility of ‘ecological thresholds’ in biodiversity conservation. Biol Conserv 124:301–310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Imhoff ML, Bounoua L, Ricketts T, Loucks C, Harriss R, Lawrence WT (2004) Global patterns in human consumption of net primary production. Nature 429:870–873

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson HB, Fahrig L (2012) What size is a biologically relevant landscape? Landscape Ecol 27:929–941

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jansson G, Angelstam P (1999) Threshold levels of habitat composition for the presence of the long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus) in a boreal landscape. Landscape Ecol 14:283–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johansson M, Primmer CR, Sahlsten J, Merila J (2005) The influence of landscape structure on occurrence, abundance and genetic diversity of the common frog, Rana temporaria. Glob Change Biol 11:1664–1679

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson CJ (2013) Identifying ecological thresholds for regulating human activity: effective conservation or wishful thinking? Biol Conserv 168:57–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Julliard R, Jiguet F, Couvet D (2004) Common birds facing global changes: what makes a species at risk? Glob Change Biol 10:148–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koenig WD, Knops JMH (1998) Scale of mast-seeding and tree-ring growth. Nature 396:225–226

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lampert A, Hastings A (2014) Optimal control of population recovery—the role of economic restoration threshold. Ecol Lett 17:28–35

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lawler JJ, Ruesch AS, Olden JD, McRae BH (2013) Projected climate-driven faunal movement routes. Ecol Lett 16:1014–1022

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MacKenzie DI (2006) Modeling the probability of resource use: the effect of, and dealing with, detecting a species imperfectly. J Wildl Manag 70:367–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGarigal K, Cushman SA, Neel MC, Ene E (2002) FRAGSTATS: spatial pattern analysis program for categorical maps. University of Massachusetts, Amherst

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor RJ, Dunn E, Johnson DH, Jones SL, Petit D, Pollock K, Smith CR, Trapp JL, Welling E (2000) A programmatic review of the North American Breeding Bird Survey: report of a peer review panel. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel

    Google Scholar 

  • Paradis E, Baillie SR, Sutherland WJ, Gregory RD (1998) Patterns of natal and breeding dispersal in birds. J Anim Ecol 67:518–536

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearson SM (1993) The spatial extent and relative influence of landscape-level factors on wintering bird populations. Landscape Ecol 8:3–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pidgeon AM, Radeloff VC, Flather CH, Lepczyk CA, Clayton MK, Hawbaker TJ, Hammer RB (2007) Associations of forest bird species richness with housing and landscape patterns across the USA. Ecol Appl 17:1989–2010

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Poole A (ed) (2005) The birds of North America online. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Radford JQ, Bennett AF (2004) Thresholds in landscape parameters: occurrence of the white-browed treecreeper Climacteris affinis in Victoria, Australia. Biol Conserv 117:375–391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rapoport EH (1982) Areography: geographic strategies of species. Pergamon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes JR, Callaghan JG, McAlpine CA, de Jong C, Bowen ME, Mitchell DL, Lunney D, Possingham HP (2008) Regional variation in habitat-occupancy thresholds: a warning for conservation planning. J Appl Ecol 45:549–557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rojstaczer S, Sterling SM, Moore NJ (2001) Human appropriation of photosynthesis products. Science 294:2549–2552

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Royle JA (2006) Site occupancy models with heterogeneous detection probabilities. Biometrics 62:97–102

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rueda M, Hawkins BA, Morales-Castilla I, Vidanes RM, Ferrero M, Rodríguez MÁ (2013) Does fragmentation increase extinction thresholds? A European-wide test with seven forest birds. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 22:1282–1292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rybicki J, Hanski I (2013) Species–area relationships and extinctions caused by habitat loss and fragmentation. Ecol Lett 16:27–38

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salford Systems (2001) MARS user guide. Salford Systems, San Diego

  • Sauer JR, Hines JE, Fallon J (2008) The North American Breeding Bird Survey, results and analysis 1966–2007. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel

    Google Scholar 

  • Scharlemann JPW, Green RE, Balmford A (2004) Land-use trends in Endemic Bird Areas: global expansion of agriculture in areas of high conservation value. Glob Change Biol 10:2046–2051

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M (2009) Critical transitions in nature and society. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer M, Carpenter SR, Lenton TM, Bascompte J, Brock W, Dakos V, van de Koppel J, van de Leemput IA, Levin SA, van Nes EH, Pascual M, Vandermeer J (2012) Anticipating critical transitions. Science 338:344–348

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwenk WS, Donovan TM (2011) A multispecies framework for landscape conservation planning. Conserv Biol 25:1010–1021

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland GD, Harestad AS, Price K, Lertzman KP (2000) Scaling of natal dispersal distances in terrestrial birds and mammals. Conserv Ecol 4:16

    Google Scholar 

  • Swift TL, Hannon SJ (2010) Critical thresholds associated with habitat loss: a review of the concepts, evidence, and applications. Biol Rev 85:35–53

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tittler R, Villard M-A, Fahrig L (2009) How far do songbirds disperse? Ecography 32:1051–1061

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turchin P (1998) Quantitative analysis of movement: measuring and modeling population redistribution in animals and plants. Sinauer, Sunderland

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. NABCI Committee (2000) North American Bird Conservation Initiative Bird Conservation Region descriptions. A supplement to the North American Bird Conservation Initiative Bird Conservation Regions map. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arlington

  • Villard M-A, Metzger JP (2014) Beyond the fragmentation debate: a conceptual model to predict when habitat configuration really matters. J Appl Ecol 51:309–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Villard M-A, Trzcinski MK, Merriam G (1999) Fragmentation effects on forest birds: relative influence of woodland cover and configuration on landscape occupancy. Conserv Biol 13:774–783

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vitousek PM, Ehrlich PR, Ehrlich AH, Matson PA (1986) Human appropriation of the products of photosynthesis. BioScience 36:368–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiens JA (1989) The ecology of bird communities, vol 1: foundations and patterns. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  • Yackulic CB, Sanderson EW, Uriarte M (2011) Anthropogenic and environmental drivers of modern range loss in large mammals. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108:4024–4029

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerberg B, Porter WF (2010) Thresholds in the long-term responses of breeding birds to forest cover and fragmentation. Biol Conserv 143:952–962

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank M. Knowles and S. Stephens for help with Figs. 1 and 4; L. S. Baggett, T. C. Brown, N. E. McIntyre, and two anonymous referees for reviewing the manuscript; Salford Systems (San Diego, California) for information about computing and plotting algorithms in MARS 2.0 software; and D. Ziolkowski for information about bird names.

Funding

This research was supported in part by funds provided by the Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (Agreement 09-JV-11221636-208), and by funds provided by Baylor University. Kevin J. Gutzwiller’s work on this project was supported by these funds.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX, 76798, USA

    Kevin J. Gutzwiller

  2. Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA

    Samuel K. Riffell

  3. Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Fort Collins, CO, 80526, USA

    Curtis H. Flather

Authors
  1. Kevin J. Gutzwiller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Samuel K. Riffell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Curtis H. Flather
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kevin J. Gutzwiller.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Research involving human subjects

The authors declare that they are in full compliance with all of the ethical standards for publishing in Landscape Ecology. Data retrieved from the North American Breeding Bird Survey Web site involved birds, but the authors’ research did not involve actual interaction with birds, other animals, or human subjects.

Additional information

S. K. Riffell—Deceased.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Material 1 (DOCX 72 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gutzwiller, K.J., Riffell, S.K. & Flather, C.H. Avian abundance thresholds, human-altered landscapes, and the challenge of assemblage-level conservation. Landscape Ecol 30, 2095–2110 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0233-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-015-0233-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation