Dear Federico:

I haven't read you draft, yet; so, maybe my answer it totally out of place. Nevertheless, the impact of roads on bird communities can be assessed in many ways. For instance, one of the known impacts of traffic vehicles and, therefore, roads on animal life is noise, and this is especially noticeable among birds, since many of them use vocal signals (songs) to communicate. Many references about the effects of roads on birds are easilly available.

I completed some research about the effects of noise pollution on the composition and structure of bird assemblages in urban settings. Specifically, I studied if nested patterns in the structure of bird metacommunities inhabiting urban green-areas could be explained as a consequence of noise levels in those sites. You can find more about this, here:

González Oreja JA, De la Fuente Díaz Ordaz AA, Hernández Santín L, Bonache Regidor C, Buzo Franco D. 2012. Can human disturbance promote nestedness? Songbirds and noise in urban parks as a case study. Landscape and Urban Planning 104: 9– 18.

I would like to know more about your hypotheses to test.

All the best:

J.

Thank you very much for your very useful suggestions. I hope to download the cited paper soon. However, in my draft, I considered the possibility of measure and quantify the effects of roads at long term, to reading this effects directly on comunity composition. The hypothesis (if considered suitable) is hard to test, and I need the interest and participation of other researchers. T

Thank You!

All the best

Federico, I like your way to assess the changes in species composition with distance to roads/urban developments. Nonetheless, there is high inter-individual variability in the tolerance to human disturbance within species and the proportion of “tolerant” individuals may largely vary among species (I’m attaching a couple of papers). Therefore, changes in bird abundance could be larger than changes in species composition close to roads.

I forgot the second paper:

Thank you very much for your contribution to this topic. I had not taken account of this exciting aspect of inter-individual variations. I read your first paper, about flight initiation distances in burrowing owls, and it is very very interesting. I think that my proposed framework could be enriched with the introduction of a new parameter, a correction factor for every bird species, that take into account the inter-individual variation rates (from bibliography when available). But maybe in this way the research becomes too difficult?

My aim is find a relatively fast and quick index to measure and compare the impact of human structures on bird communities...But the Nature is complex, and this is beauty!

Thanks and tell me yours if have new suggestions....

Along the roads, there are certain other structures like hotels, motels, high tension transmission lines, poles etc. that also have both positive and negative impacts. Some omnivore species are attracted to such areas for their food, some raptors for roosts and also for their prey species while others for nests. High tension transmission lines could also affect negatively.

I am reading your interesting approach; I attach a paper that I hope could contribute to your scheme on how to measure road effects on bird communities. Precisely I am writing a paper from my PhD Thesis about a multivariable evaluation of asphalt road effects (from traffic noise, distance to urban nuclei, use of space and food resources) on the bird community and species-specific responses in Canarian laurel forests. Best of lucks and don't hesitate on asking me for more information.

Dear Juan...your paper seem really interesting. Thank you very much. Will be useful to me, to help to define well the measure of real impact of road (paved, unpaved, etc) on bird communities. If you are agree, I will make to you further questions in the future...ok?

Thanks!

Federico

Dear Juan, other bullet points: I found (in old field works) some positive effects of road proximity on Lanius collurio selection of suitable shrub for nesting. But only in a very homogeneous farmland landscape. And probably because the roads constituted a good feed habitat (thermophilic and with optimal visibility of preys's). But the road ecology is a very interesting topic...and maybe also the positive effects should be considered ....I send to you, privately, the draft of this paper...

Best,

Federico

I would recommend checking out this very interesting paper/analysis by Matthias Leu describing the general effects of humans on the biological landscape (Ecological Applications 2008: http://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/1696_Leu.pdf). They show various methods of assessing the impact of roads (some by traffic volume) on biodiversity in general, which could be adapted specifically to birds.

Thanks!

Dear Colleagues

I cannot thank you enough for the insights provided by each one of you.

I am stating my problem very c;early to elicit your comments. I moved from Bangalore ( a huge metropolis) to Manipal ( A very small educational hub). The main street that passes through the town is planned to be widened. But the trees around are full of birds ( Pond Herons, Cormorant and another 20 -30 species) which roost, nest, breed during the monsoon and thereafter. I would like to conduct a study to categories the trees into 3 classes: 1) should not be touched, 2) may be felled only if absolutely necessary 3) May be felled. The study should be scientific so that the authorities can be made to see reason. You help will be greatly appreciated.