Artificial nests predation in an amazon-cerrado transition

Abstract

Edge effects in artificial nest predation are the focus of many researches in different scales and landscapes. We conducted an experiment to evaluate whether there is an edge effect on predation rates in forest fragments in the Amazon-Cerrado transition. In addition, we verified whether there is an influence of protected and disturbed areas on nest predation. Within a region where natural landscapes are continuously replaced by agriculture, especially for production of soybean, we found that predation was significantly higher in edge areas than in the fragment core. However, there was no difference in these rates between protected and disturbed sites. With the increasing fragmentation process, and consequently the creation of more edge habitats, several terrestrial bird species might be extinct. We need to understand the factors that are the cause for this edge effect on nest predation in order to develop conservation strategies for threatened species.