Functional Traits of Birds: An Approach to Understand the Effects of Fragmentation in the Colombian Andes

Maria Camila Estrada-Florez


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28 May 2012

Cooperative Breeding Patterns of the Red-Bellied Grackle (Hypopyrrhus pyrohypogaster) in a Highly Intervened Habitat of the Colombian Andes

My aim with this project is to study a bird community in different vegetation covers; identify how it changes through the gradient of perturbation; and finally, evaluate the functional traits (e.g. diet, feeding guild, body size, among others) of the registered birds and relate them with the variation in richness and abundance of birds.

An individual of C salmoni.

An individual of C salmoni.

Forest fragmentation is a widespread threat to biodiversity, and there is a need to better understand how plants and animals respond to this phenomenon. In a megadiverse country as Colombia, affected by the phenomenon of fragmentation, studies that evaluate the response of different species to changes in the vegetation structure, are needed. Although there have been many studies in different regions, where analysis of diversity indexes were made, very few have analysed which functional traits (ecological and morphological characteristics) of an organism may determine its presence in disturbed habitats, and could limit their ability to colonize and to remain in a disturbed area. A novel approach to this problem is the study of Functional Diversity, that evaluates which functional traits (ecological and morphological characteristics) of a given species, can determine their response to different environmental perturbations.

My aim with this project is to study a bird community in different vegetation covers; identify how it changes through the gradient of perturbation; and finally, evaluate the functional traits (e.g. diet, feeding guild, body size, among others) of the registered birds and relate them with the variation in richness and abundance of birds. With this information, it will be possible to generate better predictive models that allow us to identify the risks and threats of each individual species, and also to create more appropriate conservation strategies. Finally, it will be of great interest to compare both methods to measure diversity, the classic approach of diversity indexes and the Functional Diversity analysis, to determine how different they are and which one can provide a better approach to the study of biodiversity.

Projects like this one are important since they approach the changes in a given community, not from the taxonomic diversity (species richness) perspective, but from a functional diversity one, which enhances and refines the predictions we can make on the effects of changing environments, like the Colombian Andes, in bird communities. Therefore, it would be possible to identify those species with higher vulnerability to the anthropogenic pressures and it would also be possible to predict how the functioning of the ecosystem is going to be affected.

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