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Conservation Potential of a Semi-Forested Agricultural Landscape: Diversity and Spatial

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Conservation Potential of a Semi-Forested Agricultural Landscape: Diversity and Spatial Conservation Potential of a Semi-Forested Agricultural Landscape: Diversity and Spatial Distribution of Birds within a Large-Scale Ugandan Coffee Farm A thesis presented to the faculty of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science Michael F. McTernan May 2019 © 2019 Michael F. McTernan. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled Conservation Potential of a Semi-Forested Agricultural Landscape: Diversity and Spatial Distribution of Birds within a Large-Scale Ugandan Coffee Farm by MICHAEL F. MCTERNAN has been approved for the Program of Environmental Studies and the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs by Nancy J. Stevens Professor of Biomedical Sciences Mark Weinberg Dean, Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs 3 ABSTRACT MCTERNAN, MICHAEL F., M.S., May 2019, Environmental Studies Conservation Potential of a Semi-Forested Agricultural Landscape: Diversity and Spatial Distribution of Birds within a Large-Scale Ugandan Coffee Farm Director of Thesis: Nancy J. Stevens Protected area conservation is not enough to stem increasing biodiversity loss. Therefore, it is important to consider private-owned lands when developing a long-term conservation strategy in a region. Agricultural lands, which cover more than 30 percent of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, are a good place to start. However, further research is needed to understand how species use the landscape, and what types of best practices should be encouraged to increase levels of biodiversity. This study was conducted on a 2500 ha semi-forested Ugandan Robusta coffee farm. The system is a hybrid of shade and full sun coffee production, with intense cultivation on production land and corridors of reserved indigenous forest. Using point counts, I found that the forest and farm held substantial numbers of avian species, comparable to nearby protected areas. I also found that there were three distinct communities of birds, inhabiting the coffee, the edge, and the forest. The forest habitat seemed drive diversity, and held the highest effective number of species. This study showed that farmed land can act as a reserve, but that forest must be reserved in these landscapes. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ...........................................................................................................................3 List of Tables...................................................................................................................6 List of Figures .................................................................................................................7 Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................8 1.1 Current State of Human Impact on the Planet .......................................................8 1.2 The Agricultural Footprint ................................................................................. 12 1.3 Conservation Potential of Agricultural Landscapes ............................................ 14 1.4 Land Sparing...................................................................................................... 16 1.5 Land Sharing: On-farm Reserves’ Effect on Biodiversity ................................... 18 1.6 Coffee Agroecosystems...................................................................................... 19 1.7 Biodiversity and People: Conservation, Economics and Political Ecology .......... 23 Chapter 2: Methods ....................................................................................................... 27 2.1 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................ 27 Avian Species Richness: .................................................................................... 28 Avian Community Composition: ........................................................................ 28 Avian Habitat Selection: .................................................................................... 29 2.2 Study Site .......................................................................................................... 30 2.3 Pilot Studies ....................................................................................................... 32 2.4 Bird Surveys ...................................................................................................... 33 2.5 Vegetation Data for Point Count Stations ........................................................... 35 2.6 Functional Groups .............................................................................................. 36 2.7 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 36 Estimating Species Diversity .............................................................................. 36 Comparisons of Community Similarity .............................................................. 37 Chapter 3: Results.......................................................................................................... 40 3.1 Overall Species Richness and Sample Coverage (2018 Point Count) .................. 40 3.2 Comparison of Species Richness and Composition Between Two Studies .......... 42 3.3 Avian Community Composition ......................................................................... 50 3.4 Avian Habitat Selection ..................................................................................... 52 5 Chapter 4: Discussion .................................................................................................... 56 4.1 Species Richness and Family Comparison of Two Studies ................................. 56 4.2 Avian Community Composition Comparisons.................................................... 59 4.3 Avian Habitat Selection ..................................................................................... 62 4.4 Trends in Overall Species Richness and General Conservation Notes ................. 63 4.5 Future Studies .................................................................................................... 63 4.6 Conservation at KWP ......................................................................................... 64 References ..................................................................................................................... 70 Appendix A: Opportunistic Observations ....................................................................... 96 Appendix B: Guilds ....................................................................................................... 97 6 LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1. Number of Indivduals, Species, and Sample Coverage ..................................... 40 Table 2. Observed and Estimated Species Diversity for Hill Order 0, 1 .......................... 41 Table 3. Species Observed in 2002 and 2018 ................................................................. 43 Table 4. Family list of species found in KWP ................................................................ 49 Table 5. Forest dependency with wetland species included ............................................ 51 Table 6. Forest dependency without wetland species included ....................................... 51 Table 7. Number of species and proportion of total of each foraging guild ..................... 52 Table 8. Percent similarity between habitat types ........................................................... 54 Table 9. Poisson results for species abundance/habitat type ........................................... 54 Table 10. Poisson results for species richness/habitat type ............................................. 54 Table 11. Poisson results for species abundance/canopy coverage.................................. 55 Table 12. Poisson results for species richness/canopy coverage ..................................... 55 7 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1. Number of years required for observed vertbrate species extinctions .................9 Figure 2. Human Influence on Planet Earth. ................................................................... 10 Figure 3. Agricultural Impact on Planet Earth. ............................................................... 12 Figure 4. Worldwide Coffee Production......................................................................... 20 Figure 5. Map of Kaweri Coffee Farm ........................................................................... 30 Figure 6. Rarefaction curves for Hill orders 0 and 1 ....................................................... 41 Figure 7. NMDS plot with representative species labelled.............................................. 53 8 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Current State of Human Impact on the Planet The field of conservation is at a crossroads. The traditional method of securing land to create reserves that exclude or restrict human access appears insufficient to stem the vast losses of biodiversity around the globe (Laurance, 2012; Mora et al., 2011; Heller, 2009). Even these sanctuaries are under siege from a variety of threats including population growth, resource extraction, and climate change, the effects of which could make many existing reserves obsolete (Hannah et al. 2002; Crist & Engelman., 2017). Add to this the rising economic fortunes of many of the world’s people, and the increased consumption of meat and resources associated with the growing middle
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