Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Science, Mengla, Yunnan, China.
PLoS One. 2013 Jul 29;8(7):e70379. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0070379. Print 2013.
Windbreaks often form networks of forest habitats that improve connectivity and thus conserve biodiversity, but little is known of such effects in the tropics. We determined bird species richness and community composition in windbreaks composed of remnant native vegetation amongst tea plantations (natural windbreaks), and compared it with the surrounding primary forests. Fifty-one, ten-minute point counts were conducted in each habitat type over three days. Despite the limited sampling period, our bird inventories in both natural windbreaks and primary forests were nearly complete, as indicated by bootstrap true richness estimator. Bird species richness and abundance between primary forests and windbreaks were similar, however a difference in bird community composition was observed. Abundances of important functional groups such as frugivores and insectivores did not vary between habitat types but nectarivores were more abundant in windbreaks, potentially as a result of the use of windbreaks as traveling routes, foraging and nesting sites. This preliminary study suggests that natural windbreaks may be important habitats for the persistence of bird species in a production landscape. However, a better understanding of the required physical and compositional characteristics for windbreaks to sustain bird communities is needed for effective conservation management.
防风林通常形成森林栖息地的网络，从而提高连通性，进而保护生物多样性，但人们对热带地区的这种影响知之甚少。我们在茶园（自然防风林）中残留的原生植被组成的防风林中确定了鸟类物种丰富度和群落组成，并将其与周围的原始森林进行了比较。在三种生境类型中，每天进行 51 次十分钟的点计数。尽管采样时间有限，但我们在自然防风林和原始森林中的鸟类物种调查几乎是完整的，这表明 bootstrap 真实丰富度估计器是有效的。原始森林和防风林之间的鸟类物种丰富度和数量相似，但鸟类群落组成存在差异。重要功能群的丰度，如食果者和食虫者，在不同的生境类型之间没有变化，但食蜜者在防风林中更为丰富，这可能是由于防风林被用作旅行路线、觅食和筑巢地点。这项初步研究表明，自然防风林可能是生产景观中鸟类物种持续存在的重要栖息地。然而，需要更好地了解防风林维持鸟类群落所需的物理和组成特征，以便进行有效的保护管理。
