Response of Bird Functional Traits to Landscape Heterogeneity

With rapidly increasing human populations as a driving force, agricultural expansion has intensified globally (Godfray et al., 2010; Tilman et al., 2011). As agriculture expands into previously unused regions, it fragments and replaces natural habitats, shifting diverse native vegetation to exotic monocultures that support lower biodiversity (Benton et al. 2002; Díaz et al. 2000; Donald, 2004; Stoate et al., 2001). These agricultural landscapes often remain interspersed with pockets of native vegetation, forming a mosaic landscape with a variety of land uses and covers. Mosaic landscapes can be either beneficial or detrimental to the persistence species within them (Berg, 2002). Species with lower dispersal ability tend to decrease in abundance in these mosaic landscapes, while a few species with high dispersal ability may increase in relative abundance before declining if the quality of the habitat decreases (Fahrig, 2001). Understanding the presence of different species across mosaic landscapes and any traits that may be shared by species which disperse throughout these landscapes is key to predicting the responses of wildlife to changing landscapes, to understanding the possible long-term impacts of habitat fragmentation on community structures, and to developing successful conservation plans (Ibarra-Macias, 2011).