Influence of habitat modification by livestock on páramo bird abundance in southern Andes of Ecuador

ABSTRACT

Livestock grazing on natural grasslands is widespread with negative consequences to biodiversity. In the High Andes, páramo grassland is a distinctive ecosystem where the influence of livestock grazing on páramo birds is poorly documented. We assessed the influence of habitat modification of páramo grassland related to livestock grazing on bird habitat guilds in the southern Andes of Ecuador. We recorded birds occurring along transects located in areas which showed a gradient (low to high) of grazing pressure. We found a decrease in abundance of páramo specialists in transects with more grazing pressure. We interpret this habitat modification as loss of key habitat necessary for habitat-specialized birds.

Resumen

El pastoreo en pastizales naturales es extenso con negativas consecuencias para la biodiversidad. En los altos Andes, el páramo herbáceo es un ecosistema distintivo en donde la influencia del pastoreo está pobremente documentada. Es así que, se evaluó la influencia del páramo modificado por actividades ganaderas sobre grupos de hábitat de aves en los Andes del sur del Ecuador. En áreas, las cuales mostraron una gradiente (baja hacia alta) de presión de pastoreo se usaron transectos para registrar las aves que ocurren, y se encontró una disminución de las aves especialistas en transectos con mayor presión de pastoreo. Esta pérdida de hábitat puede interpretarse como una disminución de hábitat clave para aves especialistas.

KEYWORDS:

• Elevation
• habitat guilds
• páramo bird specialist

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the logistic support of Vicente Jaramillo from INVMETALS, and Francisco Sánchez and the park ranger staff from Cajas National Park and ETAPA-EP. We also thank Jacinto Guillén, Gustavo Chacón, Ximena Moscoso and Carlos Cordero for continued support of our research and monitoring efforts. Thanks to Steve Latta for extensive editing and advice on this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by INVMETALS and Universidad del Azuay [grant number 2013-33].