PARENT SESSION
Symposium 12: Bridging the divide: Bringing theory into practice in forest biodiversity conservation
Organized by: LA Schulte, R Mitchell , ML Hunter, J Franklin, RK McIntyre, and B Palik
Wednesday, August 10, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 517 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Bird species loss in Amazon forest fragments: Implications for conservation practice.

Ferraz, Gonçalo^*,1, ¹ Projeto Dinâmica Biológica de Fragmentos Florestais, Manaus, AM, Brasil

ABSTRACT- The formulation of conservation priorities requires an understanding of what species are most vulnerable to environmental threats. In particular, managers need to know what species traits correlate with vulnerability. I measure the vulnerability of 63 bird species subjected to habitat loss in isolated forest plots of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, in the central Amazon. Each species is classified according to preferred foraging stratum, preferred diet, and habitat specialization. Additionally, I estimate demographic variables for a subset of 33 species, based on data collected in undisturbed continuous forest sites. The central result sumarizes correlations between vulnerability and both the ecological traits and demographic variables. Methods take into account the phylogenetic relatedness among species as well as possible allometric relations between demographic variables and body size. The proposed study combines a number of important features: It blends an assessment of vulnerability on multiple disturbed plots with the measurement of species traits in nearby undisturbed areas; Moreover, it examines a large heterogeneous sample of species, all submitted to the same experimentally manipulated threat.

Key words: Extinction, Birds, Amazon, Deforestation