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Elevational Ranges of Montane Birds and Deforestation in the Western Andes of Colombia.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Ocampo-Peñuela, N; Pimm, SL
Published in: PloS one
January 2015

Deforestation causes habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation, and can ultimately cause extinction of the remnant species. Tropical montane birds face these threats with the added natural vulnerability of narrower elevational ranges and higher specialization than lowland species. Recent studies assess the impact of present and future global climate change on species' ranges, but only a few of these evaluate the potentially confounding effect of lowland deforestation on species elevational distributions. In the Western Andes of Colombia, an important biodiversity hotspot, we evaluated the effects of deforestation on the elevational ranges of montane birds along altitudinal transects. Using point counts and mist-nets, we surveyed six altitudinal transects spanning 2200 to 2800 m. Three transects were forested from 2200 to 2800 m, and three were partially deforested with forest cover only above 2400 m. We compared abundance-weighted mean elevation, minimum elevation, and elevational range width. In addition to analysing the effect of deforestation on 134 species, we tested its impact within trophic guilds and habitat preference groups. Abundance-weighted mean and minimum elevations were not significantly different between forested and partially deforested transects. Range width was marginally different: as expected, ranges were larger in forested transects. Species in different trophic guilds and habitat preference categories showed different trends. These results suggest that deforestation may affect species' elevational ranges, even within the forest that remains. Climate change will likely exacerbate harmful impacts of deforestation on species' elevational distributions. Future conservation strategies need to account for this by protecting connected forest tracts across a wide range of elevations.

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Published In

PloS one

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

January 2015

Volume

10

Issue

12

Start / End Page

e0143311

Related Subject Headings

  • Tropical Climate
  • General Science & Technology
  • Ecosystem
  • Conservation of Natural Resources
  • Colombia
  • Climate Change
  • Birds
  • Biodiversity
  • Animals
  • Animal Distribution
 

Citation

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Ocampo-Peñuela, N., & Pimm, S. L. (2015). Elevational Ranges of Montane Birds and Deforestation in the Western Andes of Colombia. PloS One, 10(12), e0143311. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143311
Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia, and Stuart L. Pimm. “Elevational Ranges of Montane Birds and Deforestation in the Western Andes of Colombia.PloS One 10, no. 12 (January 2015): e0143311. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143311.
Ocampo-Peñuela N, Pimm SL. Elevational Ranges of Montane Birds and Deforestation in the Western Andes of Colombia. PloS one. 2015 Jan;10(12):e0143311.
Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia, and Stuart L. Pimm. “Elevational Ranges of Montane Birds and Deforestation in the Western Andes of Colombia.PloS One, vol. 10, no. 12, Jan. 2015, p. e0143311. Epmc, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0143311.
Ocampo-Peñuela N, Pimm SL. Elevational Ranges of Montane Birds and Deforestation in the Western Andes of Colombia. PloS one. 2015 Jan;10(12):e0143311.

Published In

PloS one

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

ISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

January 2015

Volume

10

Issue

12

Start / End Page

e0143311

Related Subject Headings

  • Tropical Climate
  • General Science & Technology
  • Ecosystem
  • Conservation of Natural Resources
  • Colombia
  • Climate Change
  • Birds
  • Biodiversity
  • Animals
  • Animal Distribution