Importance of microhabitat selection by birds for the early recruitment of endangered trees in a fragmented forest
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RESEARCH
Importance of microhabitat selection by birds for the early recruitment of endangered trees in a fragmented forest Ning Li1* , Zheng Wang2, Yao Cai1 and Lin Zhang3
Abstract Background: Remnant microhabitats are important for bird habitat selection and plant regeneration in the fragmented habitat. However, empirical information on the consequences of how microhabitat use by birds affects the early recruitment of plants is lacking. Methods: In this study, we evaluated whether microhabitat selection by the Black Bulbul (Hypsipetes leucocephalus) (J. F. Gmelin, 1789) impacts the early recruitment of the endangered tree species, the Chinese Yew (Taxus chinensis (Pilger) Rehd), in a fragmented forest over a 4-year period (2011–2012, 2018–2019). Results: Our results showed the main factors affecting H. leucocephalus microhabitat selection were distance to the nearest T. chinensis mature tree, herb cover and density, leaf litter cover, and vegetation type. Moreover, the results of logistic regression also highlighted the importance of elevation, distance to light gap and roads, tree cover in bird microhabitat selection. Furthermore, the seed emergence rate in microhabitats used by birds did not differ from the natural forest, which was related to five factors of bird microhabitat. The Random Forest model showed that seedling emergence rate was increased with leaf litter cover and distance to fallen dead trees, but decreased in relation to herb cover, slope, and elevation. Conclusion: Our results highlight the importance of remnant microhabitats in fragmented forests for sustaining forest ecology and optimal management. The contribution of microhabitats used by birds to plant recruitment provides insights into how frugivore species contribute to plant regeneration, which should be incorporated in future conservation and management practices of fragmented forests. Keywords: Fragmented forest, Hypsipetes leucocephalus, Microhabitat use, Seedling recruitment, Taxus chinensis Backgrounds Understanding how habitat fragmentation affects the persistence of plant populations is a central component of forest ecology and management (Taubert et al. 2018; Liu et al. 2019; Peters et al. 2019). In the case of fleshy-fruited trees, plant regeneration in remnant forest patches depends on the coupling of seed dispersal *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Institute of Applied Ecology, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Nanjing 211171, Jiangsu, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
and seedling recruitment processes (Cordeiro and Howe 2003; Bregman et al. 2016; Farwig et al. 2017). Empirical evidence suggests that habitat fragmentation could disrupt plant regeneration by altering seed dispersal processes and reducing the availability of suitable microhabitat for regeneration (Bomfim et al. 2018; Emer et al. 2018; Simmons et al. 2018; Marjakangas et al. 2019). Nevertheless, the fundamental question remains of whether recruitment failure in fragmented forests
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