DOI: 10.5061/dryad.gmsbcc307
title: Data from: Contrasting patterns of land use by resident and migratory bird assemblages in a tropical working landscape

description: The spatial configuration and management of agricultural and other
 land-use practices can affect ecological assemblages. However, the
 differences in how resident and migratory birds respond to land use are
 not well understood, hindering our understanding of bird biodiversity
 responses to land use. In a tropical moist broadleaf forest landscape of
 southeastern Mexico, we assessed alpha, beta, and functional diversity as
 indicators of ecosystem functioning in resident and migratory birds across
 landscape- and habitat-level gradients, incorporating distance to a
 protected area, understory vegetation cover, and three land uses: 1)
 primary forest, 2) secondary forest, and 3) cattle pasture.
 Compositionally, resident and migratory bird assemblages exhibited similar
 gradual shifts across land uses. However, while resident bird richness
 steadily declined with increasing distance from a protected area and
 simplification of understory vegetation structure, migratory bird richness
 did not change. Relative to primary forest bird assemblages, we found that
 migratory bird abundances were greater in secondary forest and cattle
 pasture, and migratory insectivores compensated for 68% of the abundance
 losses of resident insectivores in secondary forest and cattle pasture.
 Among these insectivores in secondary forest and cattle pasture, increases
 in migratory birds compensated for the abundance declines of resident
 birds that utilize foliage gleaning and sallying foraging methods. Our
 findings emphasize the importance of evaluating and managing landscapes
 around protected areas, highlight the distinct responses of resident and
 migratory birds to land use, and reveal the mechanisms that sustain
 ecosystem functions in modified landscapes.
description: # Contrasting patterns of land use on resident and migratory bird
 diversity in a tropical landscape
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gmsbcc307](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gmsbcc307) ## Description of the data and file structure We examined how land use affects resident and migratory bird diversity in a tropical forest landscape in southeastern Mexico. While both bird groups showed similar shifts in composition across land uses, only resident richness declined with habitat simplification and distance from a protected area. Migratory birds, especially insectivores, compensated for declines in resident insectivores in modified habitats, highlighting their role in sustaining ecosystem functions and the need to manage landscapes around protected areas. Point count surveys for bird diversity data, quadrat sampling for vegetation data, and remote sensing work with Google Earth for broader landscape-level variables. The dataset consists of a Palenque_Diversity_and_SiteInfo.csv file and the description of each column is described below. Descriptions of each column: * Column A: "Rep" -- overall sample repetition number. - Column B: "habitat" -- broad classification of habitat at each point-count location. * Column C: "lat" -- latitude in decimal format of each point-count location. - Column D: "lon" -- longitude in decimal format of each point-count location. * Column E: "ele" -- elevation in meters of each point-count location. - Column F: "distPNP" -- distance measurement in meters to the center of the protected area Palenque National Park from each point-count location. * Column G: "canopy_low" -- proportion of canopy cover of the understory layer, or plants up to 5 meters tall. - Column H: "canopy_mid" -- proportion of canopy cover of the midstory layer, or plants up to 15 meters tall. * Column I: "canopy_high" -- proportion of canopy cover of the upperstory layer, or plants up beyond 16 meters tall. - Column J: "water" -- proportion of ground cover made up of water bodies, such as creeks, ponds, and flooded fields. * Column K: "impervious" -- proportion of ground cover made up of mainly concrete surfaces. - Column L: "bare" -- proportion of ground cover made up of bare soil. * Column M: "leaf_litter" -- proportion of ground cover made up of dead leaves. - Column N: "grass" -- proportion of ground cover made up of grass. * Column O: "understory_plant" -- proportion of ground cover made up of understory plants, usually herbaceous plants. - Column P: "Region.Label" -- Naming system for the point count locations. * Column Q: "Month" -- Month for each point count sample. - Column R: "Day" -- Day for each point count sample. * Column S: "Year" -- Year for each point count sample. - Column T-JG: Diversity data across all samples for each bird species detected, using common names.