Bird composition of different valley habitats after land-use changes in Northern Honduras
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Stefan Hohnwald [1]
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[1] University of Helsinki
University of Helsinki
Helsinki, Finlandia
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- Localización: Neotropical Biology and Conservation, ISSN 1809-9939, Vol. 16, Nº. 1, 2021, págs. 129-144
- Idioma: inglés
- Títulos paralelos:
- Composición de aves de diferentes hábitats de valles después de cambios de uso de la tierra en el norte de Honduras
- Enlaces
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Resumen
The northern coast of Honduras is potentially covered with tropical rainforests, reaching from the Caribbean Sea up to the cloud forests of the Pico Bonito summits. Therefore, it was blessed with the mega-diverse avifauna of the Central American humid neotropics. Although local bird species have been generally well documented, there are hardly any updates on the biodiversity of northern Honduras. Thus, this study contributes to our knowledge of the natural shift of bird life, following up the Cangrejal River with its different slight land use intensification in the region. Standardized bird records along the valley are analyzed, reaching from the beaches of La Ceiba up to the managed rainforests of El Toncontíns in the lower montane rainforests. Nine points were checked over the course of at least 6 days, taking point counts between 16 March and 20 June 2005. A NMDS of the joined nine point-lists elucidates four main groups, namely the beach/city ecosystems, open habitats along the river banks, slightly cleared forests (park landscape), and a mature rainforest. In total, 115 bird species, from 102 genera and 44 families, were found in 2005. As methods are limited, results can represent merely a prodromus of bird composition of neotropical valleys of the Central American isthmus. However, avi-diversity is affected by forest degradation and increasing land-use changes. Since deforestation is still soaring in the region, bird species composition should be monitored, as it will be as dynamic as land use changes in the region.
