Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Edge Effect And Ecotonal Species: Bird Communities Across A Natural Edge In Southeastern Australia, Jack Baker, Kris French, Robert Whelan

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Ecotones have been considered as unique environments, and the concepts of edge effect and ecotonal species have been widely used, especially in avian community ecology. We studied the patterns of bird densities across heath-wood edges at replicated sites in three locations in southeastern Australia. Multivariate analysis showed that the bird community in the ecotone was intermediate between the heath and wood communities, indicating that the ecotone contained a mixing of species rather than a unique bird community. ANOVA showed a modest increase in bird density at the wood side of the ecotone, which may be partly due to sampling biases …