Habitat heterogeneity plays a vital ecological role in influencing community ecology dynamics. We evaluated the relationship between habitat heterogeneity and land-use cover with avian community structure in the human-dominated landscape of the Katavi-Rukwa ecosystem in Tanzania. We used the fixed-radius point count method to record birds in different habitats. We calculated the relative abundances and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index of bird guilds across habitats as well as the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and estimated land-use cover of the study area from Landsat 8 images. We grouped birds into five major guilds: Insectivore, Granivore, Omnivore, Carnivore and Nectarivore. Among the guilds, Insectivores, Omnivores, Nectarivores and Carnivores were positively correlated with an increase in NDVI, while Granivores were negatively correlated with an increase in NDVI. Among the habitats, woodland had high species diversity whereas riverine had low species diversity. Our findings highlight the importance of habitat heterogeneity in biodiversity conservation in human-dominated landscapes, and we suggest implementing conservation in these landscapes.

中文翻译：

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东非 miombo 林地人类主导景观中生境异质性对鸟类摄食群落结构的时空影响

生境异质性在影响群落生态动态方面发挥着至关重要的生态作用。我们评估了坦桑尼亚卡塔维-鲁夸生态系统以人类为主的景观中栖息地异质性和土地利用覆盖与鸟类群落结构之间的关系。我们采用固定半径点计数法来记录不同栖息地的鸟类。我们根据 Landsat 8 图像计算了不同栖息地鸟类的相对丰度和 Shannon-Wiener 多样性指数，以及研究区域的归一化植被指数 (NDVI) 和估计的土地利用覆盖度。我们将鸟类分为五个主要类别：食虫动物、食谷动物、杂食动物、食肉动物和食蜜动物。各行会中，食虫动物、杂食动物、食蜜动物和肉食动物与NDVI的增加呈正相关，而食粮动物与NDVI的增加呈负相关。生境中，林地物种多样性较高，河流物种多样性较低。我们的研究结果强调了栖息地异质性在人类主导景观的生物多样性保护中的重要性，我们建议在这些景观中实施保护。