Contribution of woody habitat islands to the conservation of birds and their potential ecosystem services in an extensive Colombian rangeland

The conservation of birds and their habitats is essential to maintain well-functioning ecosystems including human-dominated habitats. In simplified or homogenized landscapes, patches of natural and semi-natural habitat are essential for the survival of plant and animal populations. We compared species composition and diversity of trees and birds between gallery forests, tree islands and hedges in a Colombian savanna landscape to assess how fragmented woody plant communities affect forest bird communities and how differences in habitat characteristics influenced bird species traits and their potential ecosystem function. Bird and tree diversity was higher in forests than in tree islands and hedges. Soil depth influenced woody species distribution, and canopy cover and tree height determined bird species distribution, resulting in plant and bird communities that mainly differed between forest and non-forest habitat. Bird and tree species and traits widely co-varied. Bird species in tree islands and hedges were on average smaller, less specialized to habitat and more tolerant to disturbance than in forest, but dietary differences did not emerge. Despite being less complex and diverse than forests, hedges and tree islands significantly contribute to the conservation of forest biodiversity in the savanna matrix. Forest fragments remain essential for the conservation of forest specialists, but hedges and tree islands facilitate spillover of more tolerant forest birds and their ecological functions such as seed dispersal from forest to the savanna matrix.

Diversity and faunal composition of benthic foraminifera in Hole 44-390A on the Blake Nose Plateau

Benthic foraminiferal assemblages are a widespread tool to understand changes in organic matter flux and bottom-water oxygenation and their relation to paleoceanographic changes in the Upper Cretaceous oceans. In this study, assemblage data (diversity, total number, and number per species and gram) from Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 390 (Blake Nose, western North Atlantic) were processed for the lower Maastrichtian (Globotruncana falsostuarti - Gansserina gansseri Planktic Foraminiferal Zone). These data document significant changes in nutrient flux to the sea floor as well as bottom-water oxygenation during this time interval. Parallel to the observed changes in the benthic foraminiferal assemblages the number of inoceramid shells decreases, reflecting also a significant increase in bottom-water oxygenation. We speculate, that these data could reflect the onset of a shift from warmer low-latitude to cooler high-latitude deep-water sources. This speculation will predate the major reorganization of the oceanic circulation resulting in a circulation mode similar to today at the Early/Late Maastrichtian boundary by ~1 Ma and therefore improves our understanding of Late Cretaceous paleoceanography.