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Using a multifaceted approach to reveal avian community responses to natural and anthropogenic effects in a fragmented Southern Mistbelt Forest system, South Africa

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Abstract

Context

Forest loss and fragmentation are major drivers of biodiversity decline globally. However, with the widely recognised notion that biodiversity is multifaceted, few studies have assessed the responses of different diversity metrics to forest landscape changes.

Objectives

Here, we used a multifaceted approach to assess the effects of landscape composition, forest fragmentation (patch-level) and local habitat heterogeneity on avian alpha-diversity (taxonomic, functional, phylogenetic and functional-phylogenetic diversity) of different ecological groups.

Methods

We conducted fixed-radius point-count surveys across 32 Southern Mistbelt Forest fragments of southern KwaZulu-Natal and northern Eastern Cape, South Africa. Using linear mixed-effect models, we related multiple facets of bird diversity to landscape composition (i.e., matrix quality), habitat fragmentation (i.e., isolation distance and fragment-size) and local habitat heterogeneity (i.e., forest-structural complexity).

Results

Matrix quality was a significant positive predictor of functional (FRic, sesFRic) and phylogenetic (sesPD) diversity of forest-dependent (forest specialist) species and functional diversity (FRic) of the whole community. Habitat fragmentation had significantly negative effects (i.e. increasing isolation distance and decreasing fragment size) on multiple diversity facets of all ecological groups, but non-forest-dependent (forest generalist) species showed no responses to isolation distance. Unexpectedly, diversity facets of forest-dependent species declined with increasing local vegetation complexity.

Conclusions

Large and connected forest fragments are vital for maintaining avian diversity facets and promoting local vegetation complexity could contribute to the loss of forest-dependent species (forest specialists) in the naturally fragmented Southern Mistbelt Forests.

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Data availability

The data belong to the University of KwaZulu-Natal and are stored there. They are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr Joyi and Mr Sqithi for their permission to work in the forests, Mr Ndlela for his help in the Kokstad area and Lereko Tsoananyane for the assistance in the field. We are most grateful for the constructive comments of the reviewers that improved our manuscript. The authors gratefully acknowledge Prof S. Willows-Munro for assistance with the phylogenetic analyses.

Funding

We are grateful to the University of KwaZulu-Natal (ZA), and the National Research Foundation (NRF, ZA, Grant 98404) for funding this project. We thank the Ford Wildlife Foundation (ZA) for vehicle support. SPN received a PhD bursary from the NRF (Grant SFH170707250535).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Functional Biodiversity, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Scottsville, Private Bag X01, Pietermaritzburg, 3209, South Africa

    Samukelisiwe P. Ngcobo, David A. Ehlers Smith, S. Thobeka Gumede, Mbalenhle Sosibo, Yvette C. Ehlers Smith & Colleen T. Downs

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  1. Samukelisiwe P. Ngcobo
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  2. David A. Ehlers Smith
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  3. S. Thobeka Gumede
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  4. Mbalenhle Sosibo
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  5. Yvette C. Ehlers Smith
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  6. Colleen T. Downs
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Contributions

SPN, CTD, DES and YES conceptualised the study. CTD sought funding. SPN, STG and MS collected the data. SPN analysed the data with assistance from DES. SPN wrote the draft manuscript. The other authors provided editorial input.

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Correspondence to Colleen T. Downs.

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Ngcobo, S.P., Ehlers Smith, D.A., Gumede, S.T. et al. Using a multifaceted approach to reveal avian community responses to natural and anthropogenic effects in a fragmented Southern Mistbelt Forest system, South Africa. Landsc Ecol 37, 1885–1903 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01450-8

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