Keywords
protected areas
field methods
raptor census
community analysis
reserva de la biosfera Macizo del Cajas
áreas protegidas
métodos de campo
monitoreo de rapaces
análisis de la comunidad
How to Cite
Abstract
Introduction: Habitat alterations result in biodiversity loss, particularly in regions with high levels of diversity and endemism. Raptors are an essential part of the functionality and stability of ecosystems and indicators of habitat quality. In the paramo grassland ecosystems in the high Andes of Northern South America, raptors contain a high concentration of threatened species. Objective: To describe the raptor community structure and determine the species associations. Methods: We made monthly raptor counts in eight transects from October 2021 to September 2022 and used a principal component analysis to determine species associations. Results: We identified 149 individuals (seven species, three families) in two communities: abundant (Carunculated Caracara, Variable Hawk, Andean Condor and Turkey Vulture; PCI = 47 %), and scarce (Cinereous Harrier, Peregrine Falcon and Aplomado Falco; PCII = 27 %). Conclusion: We provide a valid description and understanding of raptor community structure, identifying two communities and the dynamics between them. The first is characterized by an increased abundance of generalist and regionally common species, when the abundance of these species decreases, the second community is defined, characterized by an increase in the abundance of specialist and rare species at the local scale.
References
Astudillo, P. X., Siddons, D. C., Barros-Quito, S., Orellana, J. A., & Latta, S. C. (2016). La distribución potencial del cóndor andino. El Hornero, 31(2), 89–95.
Astudillo, P. X., Tinoco, B. A., Graham, C. H., & Latta, S. C. (2011). Assessing methods for estimating minimum population size and monitoring andean condors (Vultur Gryphus) in Southern Ecuador. Ornitologia Neotropical, 22(2), 257–265.
Astudillo, P. X., Tinoco, B. A., & Siddons, D. C. (2015). The avifauna of Cajas National Park and Mazán Reserve, southern Ecuador, with notes on new records. Cotinga, 37(2015), 2–12.
Ballejo, F., Lambertucci, S. A., Trejo, A., & De Santis, L. J. M. (2018). Trophic niche overlap among scavengers in Patagonia supports the condor-vulture competition hypothesis. Bird Conservation International, 28(3), 390–402. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959270917000211
Ballance, L. T., Pitman, R. L., & Reilly, S. B. (1997). Seabird community structure along a productivity gradient: importance of competition and energetic. Ecology, 78(5), 1502–1518.
Butet, A., Rantier, Y., & Bergerot, B. (2022). Land use changes and raptor population trends: A twelve-year monitoring of two common species in agricultural landscapes of Western France. Global Ecology and Conservation, 34, e02027.
Baquero, F., Sierra, R., Ordoñez, L., Tipán, M., Espinosa, L., Rivera, M. B., & Soria, P. (2004). La vegetation de los Andes del Ecuador. Memoria explicativa de los mapas de vegetación: potencial y remanente a escala 1:250.000 y del modelamiento predictivo con especies indicadoras. EcoCiencia/CESLA/Corporación EcoPar/MAG SIGAGRO/CDC - Jatun SachaIDivisión Geográfica - lGM.
Bregman, T. P., Sekercioglu, C. H., & Tobias, J. A. (2014). Global patterns and predictors of bird species responses to forest fragmentation: implications for ecosystem function and conservation. Biological Conservation, 169, 372–383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2013.11.024
Campozano, L., Célleri, R., Trachte, K., Bendix, J., & Samaniego, E. (2016). Rainfall and Cloud Dynamics in the Andes: A Southern Ecuador Case Study. Advances in Meteorology, 2016, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/3192765
Donázar, J. A., Cortés-Avizanda, A., Fargallo, J. A., Margalida, A., Moleón, M., Morales-Reyes, Z., Moreno-Opo, R., Pérez-García, J. M., Sánchez-Zapata, J. A., Zuberogoitia, I., & Serrano, D. (2016). Roles of raptors in a changing world: from flagships to providers of key ecosystem services. Ardeola, 63(1), 181–234. https://doi.org/10.13157/arla.63.1.2016.rp8
Fjeldsa, J., & Krabbe, N. (1990). Birds of the high Andes. Zoological Museum and Apollo Books.
Freile, J. F., & Restall, R. L. (2018). Birds of Ecuador. Helm field guides. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Freile, J. F., Santander, T. G., Jiménez-Uzcátegui, G., Carrasco, L., Cisneros-Heredia, D., Guevara, E. A., Sánchez-Nivicela, M., & Tinoco, B. A. (2019). Lista Roja de las Aves del Ecuador. Ministerio del Ambiente, Aves y Conservación, Comité Ecuatoriano de Registros Ornitológicos, Fundación Charles Darwin, Universidad del Azuay, Red Aves Ecuador y Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
Graham, M. H. (2003). Confronting multicollinearity in ecological multiple regression. Ecology, 84(11), 2809–2815.
Gewers, F. L., Ferreira, G. R., De Arruda, H. F., Silva, F. N., Comin, C. H., Amancio, D. R., & Costa, L. D. F. (2021). Principal component analysis: A natural approach to data exploration. ACM Computing Surveys, 54(4), 70–34. https://doi.org/10.1145/3447755
Hooper, D. U., Adair, E. C., Cardinale, B. J., Byrnes, J. E. K., Hungate, B. A., Matulich, K. L., Gonzalez, A., Duffy, J. E., Gamfeldt, L., & O’Connor, M. I. (2012). A global synthesis reveals biodiversity loss as a major driver of ecosystem change. Nature, 486(7401), 105–108. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11118
Huettmann, F., & Diamond, A. W. (2001). Using PCA scores to classify species communities: An example for pelagic seabird distribution. Journal of Applied Statistics, 28(7), 843–853. https://doi.org/10.1080/02664760120074933
Hudson, L. N., Newbold, T., Contu, S., Hill, S. L. L., Lysenko, I., De Palma, A., Phillips, H. R. P., Senior, R. A., Bennett, D. J., Booth, H., Choimes, A., Correia, D. L. P., Day, J., Echeverría-Londoño, S., Garon, M., Harrison, M. L. K., Ingram, D. J., Jung, M., Kemp, V., … Purvis, A. (2014). The PREDICTS database: A global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts. Ecology and Evolution, 4(24), 4701–4735. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1303
Han, Z., Zhang, L., Jiang, Y., Wang, H., & Jiguet, F. (2021). Local habitat and landscape attributes shape the diversity facets of bird communities in Inner Mongolian grasslands. Avian Conservation and Ecology, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.5751/ace-01745-160103
Jackson, D. A. (1993). Stopping rules in principal components analysis: A comparison of heuristical and statistical approaches. Ecological Society of America, 74(8), 2204–2214.
Jankowski, J. E., Ciecka, A. L., Meyer, N. Y., & Rabenold, K. N. (2009). Beta diversity along environmental gradients: Implications of habitat specialization in tropical montane landscapes. Journal of Animal Ecology, 78(2), 315–327. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2008.01487.x
Myers, N., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., Da Fonseca, G. A. B., & Kent, J. (2000). Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature, 403(6772), 853–858.
Neill, D. A. (1999). Vegetación. In P. M. Jørgensen & S. León-Yánez (Eds.), Catalogue of the vascular plants of Ecuador (pp. 13–25). Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 75.
Newton, I. (1979). Population ecology of raptors. T & AD Poyser.
Nur, N., Jones, S. L., & Geupel, G. R. (1999). Statistical Guide to Data Analysis of Avian Monitoring Programs. Departament of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service.
Naveda-Rodríguez, A., Vargas, F. H., Kohn, S., & Zapata-Ríos, G. (2016). Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) in Ecuador: Geographic distribution, population size and extinction risk. Plos One, 11(3), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0151827
Olmedo, I. (2019). Cathartes aura. In J. F. Freire (Ed.), Aves del Ecuador. Museo de Zoología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. https://bioweb.bio/faunaweb/avesweb/FichaEspecie/Cathartes%20aura, acceso Martes, 4 de Enero de 2022.
Ochoa-Sánchez, A., Crespo, P., & Célleri, R. (2018). Quantification of rainfall interception in the high Andean tussock grasslands. Ecohydrology, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1946
Palacio, F. X., Apodaca, M. J., & Crisci, J. V. (2020). Análisis multivariado para datos biológicos: teoría y su aplicación utilizando el lenguaje R. Vazques Mazzini Editores.
Plaza, P. I., & Lambertucci, S. A. (2020). Ecology and conservation of a rare species: What do we know and what may we do to preserve Andean condors? Biological Conservation, 251(2020), 108782. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108782
Pruscini, F., Morelli, F., Perna, P., Mazzeo, R., Cavitolo, P., Bertellotti, M., Catorci, A., & Santolini, R. (2016). Roadside raptor surveys in valdes Peninsula (Patagonia, argentina). Hornero, 31(1), 7–11.
Peisley, R. K., Saunders, M. E., Robinson, W. A., & Luck, G. W. (2017). The role of avian scavengers in the breakdown of carcasses in pastoral landscapes. Emu Austral Ornithology, 117(1), 68–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2016.1271990
Remsen, J. V., Areta, J. I., Bonaccorso, E., Claramunt, S., Jaramillo, A., Lane, D., Pacheco, J., Robbins, M., Stiles, F., & Zimmer, K. (2021). Una clasificación de las especies de aves de América del Sur. Unión americana de ornitólogos.
Ridgely, R. S., & Greenfield, P. J. (2001). The Birds of Ecuador, Volume I: Status, Distribution, and Taxonomy. Cornell University Press.
Ralph, C. J., Geupel, G. R., Pyle, P., Martin, T. E., DeSante, D. F., & Borja, M. (1996). Manual de métodos de campo para el monitoreo de aves terrestres. Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture Forest.
Rodríguez, S., Rodas, F., Schubert, A., & Vasco, S. (2014). Área de biosfera macizo del Cajas; Experiencias de desarrollo sostenible para el buen vivir. ETAPA EP. Municipio de Cuenca, Ministerio del ambiente, SENPLADES, Ministerio de relaciones exteriores, Cooperación alemana GIZ, Naturaleza y cultura internacional.
Roach, N. S., Urbina-Cardona, N., & Lacher, T. E. (2020). Land cover drives amphibian diversity across steep elevational gradients in an isolated neotropical mountain range: Implications for community conservation. Global Ecology and Conservation, 22, e00968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e00968
Rakotomalala, A. A. N. A., Wurz, A., Grass, I., Martin, D. A., Osen, K., Schwab, D., Soazafy, M. R., Tscharntke, T., & Raveloson-Ravaomanarivo, L. H. (2021). Tropical land use drives endemic versus exotic ant communities in a global biodiversity hotspot. Biodiversity and Conservation, 30(14), 4417–4434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02314-4
Sekercioglu, C. H. (2006). Increasing awareness of avian ecological function. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 21(8), 464–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2006.05.007
Stucchi, M., & Figueroa, J. (2010). Descripción de las interacciones tróficas entre el cóndor andino Vultur gryphus y otras especies por el consumo de carroña en el cañón del Colca, Arequipa. Boletín Informativo de la Unión de Ornitólogos de Perú, 5(2), 8-14.
Sergio, F., & Hiraldo, F. (2008). Intraguild predation in raptor assemblages: A review. Ibis, 150(1), 132–145. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2008.00786.x
Vaughan, I. P., & Ormerod, S. J. (2005). Increasing the value of principal components analysis for simplifying ecological data: A case study with rivers and river birds. Journal of Applied Ecology, 42(3), 487–497. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2005.01038.x
Vrezec, A., & Tome, D. (2004). Altitudinal segregation between Ural Owl Strix uralensis and Tawny Owl S. aluco: Evidence for competitive exclusion in raptorial birds: Capsule The Owls were significantly segregated in space with the most important factor being altitude. Bird Study, 51(3), 264–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/00063650409461362
Comments
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2023 Revista de Biología Tropical