Abstract
Deforestation and habitat loss resulting from land use changes are some of the utmost anthropogenic impacts that threaten tropical birds in human-modified landscapes (HMLs). The degree of these impacts on birds’ diet, habitat use, and ecological niche can be measured by isotopic analysis. We investigated whether the isotopic niche width, food resources, and habitat use of bird trophic guilds differed between HMLs and natural landscapes (NLs) using stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen isotopes (δ15N). We analyzed feathers of 851 bird individuals from 28 landscapes in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We classified landscapes into two groups according to the percentage of forest cover (HMLs ≤ 30%; NLs ≥ 47%), and compared the isotopic niche width and mean values of δ13C and δ15N for each guild between landscape types. The niches of frugivores, insectivores, nectarivores, and omnivores were narrower in HMLs, whereas granivores showed the opposite pattern. In HMLs, nectarivores showed a reduction of 44% in niche width, while granivores presented an expansion of 26%. Individuals in HMLs consumed more resources from agricultural areas (C4 plants), but almost all guilds showed a preference for forest resources (C3 plants) in both landscape types, except granivores. Degraded and fragmented landscapes typically present a lower availability of habitat and food resources for many species, which was reflected by the reduction in niche width of birds in HMLs. Therefore, to protect the diversity of guilds in HMLs, landscape management strategies that offer birds more diverse habitats must be implemented in tropical regions.
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Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank the people that helped this research, without knowing they were doing it, through depositing specimens of birds in MZUSP collections (Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil). All the authors thank São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), and Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the financial support. We thank the reviewers who provided helpful feedback to improve our manuscript.
Funding
São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) provided financial support that allowed the data collection (#2010/05343-5, #2011/06782-5 and #2011/04046-0). ABN was financed by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code #88882.328664/2019-01). ABN is supported by a doctoral scholarship from FAPESP (process #2020/07619-0). JAB is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship grant from FAPESP (#2018-05970-1). ERA is founded by Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) research grant (#300744/2020-0—Programa de Capacitação Institucional). ERA also was supported by CAPES during his postdoctoral research (Finance Code 001—CAPES PNPD 2013/1723). CNPq provided research grants for KMPMBF (#308632/2018-4), LFS (#302291/2015-6 and #308337/2019-0) and MAP (#304742/2019-8).
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ABN, KMPMBF, MZM, LFS, MAP and WRS conceived the ideas and designed methodology; ABN, LFS, ERA, DTAL, MAP, VCO, RJD, AVC and AJP collected the data; ABN, MM and JAB analyzed the data; ABN led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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Communicated by Seth Newsome.
In memoriam Daniela Tomasio Apolinario da Luz.
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Navarro, A.B., Magioli, M., Bogoni, J.A. et al. Human-modified landscapes narrow the isotopic niche of neotropical birds. Oecologia 196, 171–184 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04908-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04908-9