title: Idiosyncratic responses of Amazonian birds to primary forest disturbance.
abstract: As humans continue to alter tropical landscapes across the world, it is important to understand what environmental factors help determine the persistence of biodiversity in modified ecosystems. Studies on well-known taxonomic groups can offer critical insights as to the fate of biodiversity in these modified systems. Here we investigated species-specific responses of 44 forest-associated bird species with different behavioural traits to forest disturbance in 171 transects distributed across 31 landscapes in two regions of the eastern Brazilian Amazon. We investigated patterns of species occurrence in primary forests varyingly disturbed by selective-logging and fire and examined the relative importance of local, landscape and historical environmental variables in determining species occurrences. Within undisturbed and disturbed primary forest transects, we found that distance to forest edge and the biomass of large trees were the most important predictors driving the occurrence of individual species. However, we also found considerable variation in species responses to different environmental variables as well as inter-regional variation in the responses of the same species to the same environmental variables. We advocate the utility of using species-level analyses to complement community-wide responses in order to uncover highly variable and species-specific responses to environmental change that remain so poorly understood.
authors.affiliation: Curso de Pós-Graduação de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Pará/Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Caixa Postal 399, Belém, Pará, CEP 66040-170, Brazil. nargilamoura@yahoo.com.br.|Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA. nargilamoura@yahoo.com.br.
authors.forename: Nárgila G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Moura
authors.affiliation: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA.|Coordenação de Zoologia, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Caixa Postal 399, Belém, Pará, CEP 66040-170, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alexander C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Lees
authors.affiliation: Coordenação de Zoologia, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Caixa Postal 399, Belém, Pará, CEP 66040-170, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aleixo
authors.affiliation: Coordenação de Zoologia, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Caixa Postal 399, Belém, Pará, CEP 66040-170, Brazil.|Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK.|Universidade Federal de Lavras, Setor de Ecologia e Conservação, Lavras, Minas Gerais, CEP 37200-000, Brazil.
authors.forename: Jos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barlow
authors.affiliation: Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK.
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Berenguer
authors.affiliation: Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, Trav. Dr. Enéas Pinheiro s/n, CP 48, Belém, Pará, CEP 66095-100, Brazil.
authors.forename: Joice
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.affiliation: Institute for Applied Ecology, The University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT, 2617, Australia.
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mac Nally
authors.affiliation: Institute for Applied Ecology, The University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT, 2617, Australia.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Environment Institute, 87D Linegatan, Stockholm, Sweden.|International Institute for Sustainability, Rio De Janeiro, CEP 22460-320, Brazil.
authors.forename: Toby A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Gardner
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D018533:Biomass; D001717:Birds; D001938:Brazil; D004777:Environment; D005390:Fires; D065928:Forests; D006801:Humans; D013045:Species Specificity; D014197:Trees; D014329:Tropical Climate
keywords: Biodiversity; Degraded forest; Environmental variables; Neotropical birds; Random forest