Do bird communities of neotropical monodominant forests have their own identity? The case of Eremanthus erythropappus forests

Abstract

Background: Monodominant Eremanthus erythropappus forests are dispersed in neotropical montane regions of southeastern and northeastern Brazil, forming ecotonal areas among other high altitude phytophysiognomies, with no information from their fauna communities and how these communities vary between phytophysiognomies adjacent. We examined the bird community of three preserved and three managed E. erythropappus forests, and compared them two other coexisting phytophysiognomies (cloud forests and montane fields), being three samples of each, in an ecotonal region between two biodiversity hotspot domains (Cerrado and Atlantic Forest), in southeastern Brazil (1300 to 1570m high). Results: The bird community of the natural E. erythropappus forests was shared with other vegetation, while the managed E. erythropappus forests presented the lowest species richness. However, even though managed E. erythropappus forests has almost no exclusive elements, their community caused a balanced variation (a set of very similar species, only changing the representativeness), suggesting that the abundance of the registered species varies along these phytophysiognomies. Conclusion: The species associated with the natural E. erythropappus forests represented 50% of the total species, in contrast to the remaining 50% associated with the areas of cloud forests and montane fields, and their sharing behaves as an ecotonal community, since its community coincides with elements which are also present in the avifauna of the other two sampled phytophysiognomies. The composition of the avifauna from managed E. erythropappus forests was more similar to the community registered in the montane fields.