Impacts of trees species and functional traits on birds visitation in a Nigerian montane forest: Implications for conservation

Birds provide ecosystem services that play crucial role in maintaining forest ecosystems. However, the knowledge of the relationship between different bird assemblages and different forest types is still scanty. We analyzed the impacts of different tree species of different functional traits on visi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Toma Buba, Ridwan Muhammad Jaafar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2021-07-01
Series:Scientific African
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227621000879
_version_ 1818908837953929216
author Toma Buba
Ridwan Muhammad Jaafar
author_facet Toma Buba
Ridwan Muhammad Jaafar
author_sort Toma Buba
collection DOAJ
description Birds provide ecosystem services that play crucial role in maintaining forest ecosystems. However, the knowledge of the relationship between different bird assemblages and different forest types is still scanty. We analyzed the impacts of different tree species of different functional traits on visitation preferences by birds in Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve, Nigeria (7°30′N, 11°30′E). We monitored visitation of different bird species to trees using the point-count method. A total of 32 bird species were recorded. Must of bird species (28 species) were insectivores, while four species are frugivores. The rate of visitation of different bird species differs significantly among the different tree species. Correlation analyses showed that the frequency of birds’ visits depend on abundance of individuals of a tree species. However, some of the tree species are more frequently visited by different species of birds, while other trees are peculiar in terms of visitation preferences by some of the bird species. More important tree species as the frequency of birds’ visitation is concern include M. lanceolata (205), P. fulva (134), and B. speciosa (113). Trees that were visited by the highest number of species of birds include B. speciosa (28), M. lanceolata (20), and T. aurentalis (19). There was also a positive effect of trees' functional traits on the total number of birds’ visits, but there was no correlation between the trees' functional traits with the abundance of individual bird species visitation. We hypothesized that small morphological differences among trees will have no impact on bird's visitation as found in this study. These results and interpretations have implications for sustainable management and conservation of montane forest and possibly elsewhere.
first_indexed 2024-12-19T22:17:22Z
format Article
id doaj.art-bc3e0cff0f604a5b9be2ea879a0ed462
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2468-2276
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-19T22:17:22Z
publishDate 2021-07-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series Scientific African
spelling doaj.art-bc3e0cff0f604a5b9be2ea879a0ed4622022-12-21T20:03:44ZengElsevierScientific African2468-22762021-07-0112e00783Impacts of trees species and functional traits on birds visitation in a Nigerian montane forest: Implications for conservationToma Buba0Ridwan Muhammad Jaafar1Corresponding author.; Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, P.M. B 0248, Bauchi, NigeriaDepartment of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, P.M. B 0248, Bauchi, NigeriaBirds provide ecosystem services that play crucial role in maintaining forest ecosystems. However, the knowledge of the relationship between different bird assemblages and different forest types is still scanty. We analyzed the impacts of different tree species of different functional traits on visitation preferences by birds in Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve, Nigeria (7°30′N, 11°30′E). We monitored visitation of different bird species to trees using the point-count method. A total of 32 bird species were recorded. Must of bird species (28 species) were insectivores, while four species are frugivores. The rate of visitation of different bird species differs significantly among the different tree species. Correlation analyses showed that the frequency of birds’ visits depend on abundance of individuals of a tree species. However, some of the tree species are more frequently visited by different species of birds, while other trees are peculiar in terms of visitation preferences by some of the bird species. More important tree species as the frequency of birds’ visitation is concern include M. lanceolata (205), P. fulva (134), and B. speciosa (113). Trees that were visited by the highest number of species of birds include B. speciosa (28), M. lanceolata (20), and T. aurentalis (19). There was also a positive effect of trees' functional traits on the total number of birds’ visits, but there was no correlation between the trees' functional traits with the abundance of individual bird species visitation. We hypothesized that small morphological differences among trees will have no impact on bird's visitation as found in this study. These results and interpretations have implications for sustainable management and conservation of montane forest and possibly elsewhere.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227621000879ConservationBirdsMontaneNigerianTraitsTrees
spellingShingle Toma Buba
Ridwan Muhammad Jaafar
Impacts of trees species and functional traits on birds visitation in a Nigerian montane forest: Implications for conservation
Scientific African
Conservation
Birds
Montane
Nigerian
Traits
Trees
title Impacts of trees species and functional traits on birds visitation in a Nigerian montane forest: Implications for conservation
title_full Impacts of trees species and functional traits on birds visitation in a Nigerian montane forest: Implications for conservation
title_fullStr Impacts of trees species and functional traits on birds visitation in a Nigerian montane forest: Implications for conservation
title_full_unstemmed Impacts of trees species and functional traits on birds visitation in a Nigerian montane forest: Implications for conservation
title_short Impacts of trees species and functional traits on birds visitation in a Nigerian montane forest: Implications for conservation
title_sort impacts of trees species and functional traits on birds visitation in a nigerian montane forest implications for conservation
topic Conservation
Birds
Montane
Nigerian
Traits
Trees
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227621000879
work_keys_str_mv AT tomabuba impactsoftreesspeciesandfunctionaltraitsonbirdsvisitationinanigerianmontaneforestimplicationsforconservation
AT ridwanmuhammadjaafar impactsoftreesspeciesandfunctionaltraitsonbirdsvisitationinanigerianmontaneforestimplicationsforconservation