| Titre : | Effect of rain forest disturbance and fragmentation : comparative changes of the raptor community along natural and human-made gradient in French Guiana |
| Auteurs : | Mathilde Julien, Auteur ; Jean-Marc Thiollay, Auteur |
| Type de document : | article scientifique |
| Editeur : | Hoboken : Wiley-Blackwell, 1996 |
| Collection : | Journal of Biogeography, ISSN 0305-0270 |
| Format : | p. 7-25 |
| Langues: | Anglais |
| Catégories : |
[Ecoplanète] 0100 - ECOLOGIE/MILIEUX NATURELS > 0101 - ECOLOGIE > ECOLOGIE > ECOLOGIE ANIMALE > POPULATION ANIMALE [Ecoplanète] 0100 - ECOLOGIE/MILIEUX NATURELS > 0101 - ECOLOGIE > ECOLOGIE > HABITAT NATUREL [Ecoplanète] 0100 - ECOLOGIE/MILIEUX NATURELS > 0103 - NOMS VERNACULAIRES ANIMAUX > RAPACE |
| Résumé : |
A density index of every diurnal raptor species (Falconiformes) was obtained on 101 300 ha sample plots distributed among 8 natural habitats and 5 man-made habitats arranged along gradients of increasing forest degradation and fragmentation. The most significant structural parameter affecting species distribution was tall canopy forest cover. Species richness, diversity and density all decreased with this mature forest cover index. Individual species and overall community densities decreased along the deforestation gradient but species richness was partly maintained by species turnover.
Six groups of species were identified according to their natural habitat preferences. Their distribution along the deforestation gradient was correlated with their natural habitat selection pattern. Thus community composition of each vegetation or landscape type was predictable. Some 56% of the regional assemblage of species had their optimal density in the primary forest. A third of them were interior forest species highly sensitive to forest disturbance and opening. The other two-thirds were upper canopy, gap or edge species more tolerant to forest fragmentation. The last 21 species were associated with various coastal habitats, from dense forest patches to mangrove and savanna. Again, one third of them were strictly restricted to their specialized habitats while the last two-thirds colonized human altered habitats and progressively replaced primary forest species with increasing deforestation. The maintenance of large areas of every natural habitat was essential for the conservation of (1) the whole population of a third of the total raptor diversity and (2) optimal and presumably potential source populations of most other species surviving in human modified habitats. (résumé d'auteur) |
