High semi-natural vegetation cover and heterogeneity of field sizes promote bird beta-diversity at larger scales in Ethiopian Highlands

Marcacci, Gabriel; Gremion, Jérémy; Mazenauer, Julien; Sori, Tolera; Kebede, Fanuel; Ewnetu, Mihret; Christe, Philippe; Arlettaz, Raphaël; Jacot, Alain (2022). High semi-natural vegetation cover and heterogeneity of field sizes promote bird beta-diversity at larger scales in Ethiopian Highlands. Journal of applied ecology, 59(5), pp. 1219-1230. Wiley 10.1111/1365-2664.14134

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1. The intensification of farming practices exerts detrimental effects on biodiver-
sity. Most research has focused on declines in species richness at local scales
(alpha-diversity) although species loss is exacerbated by biotic homogenization
that operates at larger scales (i.e. affecting beta-diversity). The majority of stud-
ies have been conducted in temperate, industrialized countries while tropical
areas remain poorly studied. Agricultural landscapes of sub-Saharan Africa are
still largely dominated by small-scale subsistence farming, but strenuous efforts
to intensify farming practices are currently spreading to meet a growing food
demand. It is therefore crucial to understand how these intensified practices
affect biodiversity to mitigate their negative impacts.
2. We investigated how farming system (small- vs. large-scale farming) and land-
scape complexity (semi-natural vegetation cover) drive bird species composi-
tion, community turnover and beta-diversity patterns in Ethiopian Highlands'
agroecosystems. We evaluated the following hypotheses: (1) large-scale farm-
ing homogenizes bird communities, (2) community turnover is higher in small-
scale farms, (3) interactive effects between landscape complexity and farming
systems shape avian communities and (4) heterogeneity of field sizes increases
community turnover at larger scales.
3. Bird communities underwent greater compositional changes along the land-
scape complexity than along the agricultural intensity gradient. Contrary to
our expectations, beta-diversity was not significantly lower within large-scale
farms (no biotic homogenization), and complex landscapes that still offer a high
amount of semi-natural vegetation promoted community turnover in both farm-
ing systems.
4. Semi-natural vegetation cover mediated how avian communities responded to
agricultural intensification: the compositional differences between small- and large-scale farms increased with vegetation cover, further promoting avian com-
munity heterogeneity at the landscape level.
5. The heterogeneity in field sizes also enhanced bird community turnover, sug-
gesting that a combination of both small- and large-scale farming systems within
a given landscape unit would promote beta-diversity at larger scales, provided
large-scale farms do not become dominant.
6. Synthesis and applications. Landscape complexity shaped avian communities to
a stronger degree than farming intensity, emphasizing the importance of semi-
natural vegetation and landscape heterogeneity for the maintenance of diverse
bird communities and for achieving multifunctional landscapes promoting biodi-
versity and associated ecosystem services on the High Ethiopian plateaus.

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