Bird use of avocado farms and intact forest in the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic, a conservation priority area due to high rates of bird endemism and overwintering Neotropical migrant habitats, is seeing an increase of avocado farms and a subsequent forest loss. We conducted point-count bird surveys to determine how avian species richness and diversity differ between avocado farms and intact forest, as well as how vegetation differences between farms and forests could impact bird use. We found that vegetation structure varied significantly between farm and forest sites, but that overall bird diversity and migrant diversity did not. However, we found that endemic bird species showed higher species richness and diversity in intact forest than avocado farm sites and were also influenced by measured vegetation characteristics, demonstrating the importance of the protection of native dry forest in the region. We conclude that avocado farms provide habitat for generalist bird species, some migrant species, and very few endemic species that are forest-dependent.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Young, Avery

Contributors dc:contributor

• Aborn, David
• Boyd, Jennifer; Latta, Steve
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Agriculture--Tropics
• Birds--Habitat
• Rain forest ecology

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/767

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1936