Influence Of Vegetation Characteristics On Bird Communities Under Micro-habitat Scale

With the acceleration of urbanization and expansion of urban area as well as the changing of landscape,the problem of fragmentation of urban ecological environment and biodiversity decrease had become more and more serious.The ecological service of city as habitat for wild bird was gradually losing,and urban park had become the most important habitat and breeding sites for birds.Study on the vegetation characteristics of typical bird habitats in the park was valuable for constructing urban habitat landscape and maintaining the diversity of urban birds.Domestic and foreign studies had shown that habitat vegetation composition significantly affected the diversity of birds,however,most of these studies focused on vegetation structure and community diversity,researches on plant species selection and configuration of habitat were few in number.Therefore,by taking the micro-habitat scale as the starting point,this study aimed to investigate the effects of different plant species,phenological regularity and distribution characteristics of bird communities in Beijing Olympic Forest Park.The effects of plant characteristics on bird communities and bird guilds were analyzed,and the regular activity patterns of different bird guilds in plant habitats and their preferences of plant habitats were discussed.Moreover,to provide theoretical basis for enhancing the ecological services of urban greenspace in Beijing,typical vegetation configurating patterns,detailed suggestions and references for urban biodiversity conservation and plant landscape construction of bird habitat were purposed.The main results from the investigation were as follows:(1)In Beijing Olympic Forest Park,170 species of vascular plants(including varieties and forms)were recorded,which belonged to 58 families and 127 genera,and the composition ratio of trees,shrubs,herbs,aquatic plants and vines was 21:12:19:3:1.Plant richness in South Park was higher than that of North Park.The dominant families in sequence were Rosaceae(14.71%)>Compositae(10.00%)>Gramineae(7.65%)>Salicaceae(5.29%)>Papilionaceae(4.71%)>Oleaceae(4.71%).Eight species with the highest frequency were selected as the common plants of the park.Pinus tabuliformis's frequency was relatively highest in the trees,Lonicera maackii in the shrubs and Taraxacum mongolicum in the herbs.Significant differences were found in the annual distribution during common flowering period,and the peak season was concentrated in spring and summer.There were aiso significant differences in the distribution of common fruits during the whole year.The peak period was concentrated in summer and autumn.82 species of woody plants were food source species for birds in the whole garden,accounting for 82.83%of the total number of woody plants,of which 61 were native plants in Beijing or well adapted naturalized plants,but their distribution in the whole park was uneven.(2)A total of 108 species of birds belonging to 14 orders and 37 families were recorded in Beijing Olympic Forest Park,accounting for 23.18%of the current number of birds recorded in Beijing.Birds of Palaearctic species had the largest number in terms of flora form.In the residence type,the traveled birds and the summer migratory birds were abundant,but the residence birds and winter migratory birds were relatively deficient.In terms of the vertical distribution zone,most of them were active in the plain area or low mountain areas;In the ecological type,the species number of songbirds which could adapt to a variety of habitat was the most,accounting for 63.98%of the total;breeding birds' nest mainly belonged to tree nest and shrub nest,insects eating was the main feeding habit.In the seasonal stage,there were significant differences in the richness and abundance of birds in the whole year,and the abundance of birds in winter and the richness of birds in spring and autumn reached the peak.Diversity index showed that in spring>autumn>summer>winter.In addition,the attractiveness of bird community in the South Park was significantly better than that of the North Park,and the abundance and behavioral activity in North Park was lower than the South Park.(3)Birds were divided into 10 guilds,according to the feeding habits,feeding methods and the level of plant habitat that birds using,including omnivorous-pick up guild,worm-pick up guild,grass layer guild,aquatic plant-exploring guild,aquatic organisms-pick up/fly guild,insect-exploring guild,insect-flying guild,plant eating guild,meat-flying guild and insect-shrub guild.The frequency of habitat,movement and feeding behavior of the bird community on the tree layer were significantly higher than those in the aquatic plant layer,shrub layer and herb layer,and the distribution of each bird group on different living type plants was a certain difference,but there would be crossed and overlapped in the space of habitat,movement and feeding.(4)The flowering time of common plants had a significant positive effect on bird diversity,and there was a significant positive correlation between flowering time and bird diversity in insect-exploring guild and insect-flying guild.Significant positive correlation was also found between the fruit time and the diversity of birds,and fruit time had a significant positive effect on abundance,richness and diversity of birds in insects-flying guild.(5)Different living plant species possessed different attractiveness to bird species.The plants with the highest importance value of woody plants were Salix matsudana f.pendula,Acer truncatum,Salix matsudana,Malus micromalus and Lonicera maackii.The most important herbaceous plants was Poa pratensis,The most important aquatic plants was Poa pratensis.These plants were closely related to the birds of several guilds and would greatly enhance the diversity of birds in plant habitats through a reasonable plant configuration.(6)The behavior rules of different bird guilds in plant habitats and their preferences for habitat characteristics were summized,and it would provide important references for plant selection and configuration of creating wonderful habitats.The planning strategies of plant habitats at the micro-habitat scale were puted forward from the plant selection and configuration,terrain and waterway construction and other aspects,such as configuring plants of diffirent phenological period reasonablely,improving the proportion of native plants and food source species.On the basis of this study,the typical plant habitat models for different bird guilds were constructed,and habitat benefits were maximized by controlling key factors for bird preferences.The results of this study would provide references to urban ecology researchers understanding the characteristics and types of plant habitats suitable for bird communities,providing an important theoretical basis for the construction of urban birds habitat.It would actively guide the landscape design of urban parks to the direction of biological diversity conservation.Creating suitable habitat space for different birds in urban environment would help to maintain the ecological balance of city and improve people's satisfaction with living environment,and finally promote harmony relationship between human and nature.