Bird extirpations and community dynamics in an Andean cloud forest over 100 years of land-use change.
Abstract
Long-term studies to understand biodiversity changes remain scarce-especially so for
tropical mountains. We examined changes from 1911 to 2016 in the bird community of
the cloud forest of San Antonio, a mountain ridge in the Colombian Andes. We evaluated
the effects of past land-use change and assessed species vulnerability to climate
disruption. Forest cover decreased from 95% to 50% by 1959, and 33 forest species
were extirpated. From 1959 to 1990, forest cover remained stable, and an additional
15 species were lost-a total of 29% of the forest bird community. Thereafter, forest
cover increased by 26% and 17 species recolonized the area. The main cause of extirpations
was the loss of connections to adjacent forests. Of the 31 (19%) extirpated birds,
25 have ranges peripheral to San Antonio, mostly in the lowlands. Most still occurred
regionally, but broken forest connections limited their recolonization. Other causes
of extirpation were hunting, wildlife trade, and water diversion. Bird community changes
included a shift from predominantly common species to rare species; forest generalists
replaced forest specialists that require old growth, and functional groups, such as
large-body frugivores and nectarivores, declined disproportionally. All water-dependent
birds were extirpated. Of the remaining 122 forest species, 19 are vulnerable to climate
disruption, 10 have declined in abundance, and 4 are threatened. Our results show
unequivocal species losses and changes in community structure and abundance at the
local scale. We found species were extirpated after habitat loss and fragmentation,
but forest recovery stopped extirpations and helped species repopulate. Land-use changes
increased species vulnerability to climate change, and we suggest reversing landscape
transformation may restore biodiversity and improve resistance to future threats.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/23514Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1111/cobi.13423Publication Info
Palacio, Ruben D; Kattan, Gustavo H; & Pimm, Stuart L (2020). Bird extirpations and community dynamics in an Andean cloud forest over 100 years
of land-use change. Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology, 34(3). pp. 677-687. 10.1111/cobi.13423. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/23514.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Stuart L. Pimm
Doris Duke Distinguished Professor of Conservation Ecology in the Nicholas School
of the Environment and Earth Sciences
Stuart Pimm is a world leader in the study of present-day extinctions and what can
be done to prevent them. His research covers the reasons why species become extinct,
how fast they do so, the global patterns of habitat loss and species extinction and,
importantly, the management consequences of this research. Pimm received his BSc degree
from Oxford University in 1971 and his Ph.D. from New Mexico State University in 1974.
Pimm is the author of over 350 scientific papers and five books. He i

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