Dreitz Victoria J, Stinson Lani T, Hahn Beth A, Tack Jason D, Lukacs Paul M
Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, Wildlife Biology Program and Avian Science Center, College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana , Missoula , MT , United States.
Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, Wildlife Biology Program, College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, United States; Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States.
PeerJ. 2017 Jan 18;5:e2879. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2879. eCollection 2017.
Future demands for increased food production are expected to have severe impacts on prairie biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. Prairie avifauna of North America have experienced drastic population declines, prompting numerous conservation efforts, which have been informed primarily by small-scale studies. We applied a large-scale perspective that integrates scale dependency in avian responses by analyzing observations of 20 prairie bird species (17 grassland obligates and three sagebrush obligate species) from 2009-2012 in the western prairie region of the United States. We employed a multi-species model approach to examine the relationship of land ownership, habitat, and latitude to landscape-scale species richness. Our findings suggest that patterns and processes influencing avian assemblages at the focal-scale (e.g., inference at the sampling unit) may not function at the landscape-scale (e.g., inference amongst sampling units). Individual species responses to land ownership, habitat and latitude were highly variable. The broad spatial extent of our study demonstrates the need to include lands in private ownership to assess biodiversity and the importance of maintaining habitat diversity to support avian assemblages. Lastly, focal-scale information can document species presence within a study area, but landscape-scale information provides an essential complement to inform conservation actions and policies by placing local biodiversity in the context of an entire region, landscape or ecosystem.
未来对粮食产量增加的需求预计将对草原生物多样性和生态系统完整性产生严重影响。北美草原鸟类的数量急剧下降，促使人们开展了许多保护工作，这些工作主要基于小规模研究。我们采用了一种大规模视角，通过分析2009年至2012年在美国西部草原地区对20种草原鸟类（17种草原专性物种和3种蒿属专性物种）的观察结果，整合鸟类反应中的尺度依赖性。我们采用多物种模型方法来研究土地所有权、栖息地和纬度与景观尺度物种丰富度之间的关系。我们的研究结果表明，在焦点尺度（例如，采样单元内的推断）影响鸟类群落的模式和过程，在景观尺度（例如，采样单元之间的推断）可能不起作用。单个物种对土地所有权、栖息地和纬度的反应高度可变。我们研究的广泛空间范围表明，需要纳入私有土地来评估生物多样性，以及维持栖息地多样性对支持鸟类群落的重要性。最后，焦点尺度信息可以记录研究区域内物种的存在，但景观尺度信息通过将当地生物多样性置于整个区域、景观或生态系统的背景下，为保护行动和政策提供了重要补充。
