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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 34(3)

Bird assemblages of a fragmented agricultural landscape and the relative importance of vegetation structure and landscape pattern

Matthew Johnson A B , Paul Reich A and Ralph Mac Nally A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Australian Centre for Biodiversity Analysis, Policy and Management, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic. 3800, Australia.

B Corresponding author. Email: Matthew.Johnson@sci.monash.edu.au

Wildlife Research 34(3) 185-193 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR06103
Submitted: 11 August 2006  Accepted: 22 March 2007   Published: 6 June 2007

Abstract

Many of the world’s agricultural areas have greatly reduced levels of natural vegetation. This results in highly fragmented mosaic landscapes with multiple land-use types. We examined the importance of vegetation and landscape pattern by comparing the bird assemblages of riparian zones, non-riparian forest patches, and pasture in a fragmented agricultural landscape in south-eastern Australia. Bird surveys were conducted every four weeks at 27 sites in the Goldfields region of central Victoria for one year. The landscape context (position and shape of patches) and vegetation attributes were measured for each site. We found that bird assemblages strongly differed among these landscape elements. Mean abundance was significantly greater at forested patches, and there was a three-fold reduction in species richness at pasture sites. Bird assemblage structure was influenced substantially more by vegetation than by the landscape context of sites. Our results indicate that riparian vegetation is a key element for avian diversity, even in massively altered landscapes. The restoration of riparian vegetation and its connectivity with adjacent forest types would greatly benefit bird assemblages in agricultural areas.


Acknowledgements

We thank: the many farmers and their families who allowed access to their properties; Sam Lake, Paul Bailey and two anonymous reviewers who helped improve the manuscript; Greg Horrocks who helped develop field methodology; Narelle Tunstall and Sven Ihnken who assisted with vegetation surveys. Financial support for this research was kindly provided by the Murray–Darling Basin Commission and the School of Biological Sciences, Monash University.


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Appendix 1.  Landscape and class (woody vegetation) metrics calculated by Fragstats 3.3
Descriptions summarised from McGarigal et al. (2002)
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