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Habitat fragmentation can restrict geneflow, reduce neighbourhood effective population size, and increase genetic drift and inbreeding in small, isolated habitat remnants. The extent to which habitat fragmentation leads to population fragmentation, however, differs among landscapes and taxa. Commonly, researchers use information on the current status of a species to predict population effects of habitat fragmentation. Such methods, however, do not convey information on species-specific responses to fragmentation. Here, we compare levels of past population differentiation, estimated from microsatellite genotypes, with contemporary dispersal rates, estimated from multi-strata capture-recapture models, to infer changes in mobility over time in seven sympatric, forest-dependent bird species of a Kenyan cloud forest archipelago. Overall, populations of sedentary species were more strongly differentiated and clustered compared to those of vagile ones, while geographical patterning suggested an important role of landscape structure in shaping genetic variation. However, five of seven species with broadly similar levels of genetic differentiation nevertheless differed substantially in their current dispersal rates. We conclude that post-fragmentation levels of vagility, without reference to past population connectivity, may not be the best predictor of how forest fragmentation affects the life history of forest-dependent species. As effective conservation strategies often hinge on accurate prediction of shifts in ecological and genetic relationships among populations, conservation practices based solely upon current population abundances or movements may, in the long term, prove to be inadequate., (© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

What factors determine the persistence of species in fragmented habitats? To address this question, we studied the relative impacts of forest deterioration and fragmentation on bird species in 12 rainforest fragments in Kenya, combining 6 years of individual capture-recapture data with measurements of current captures and museum specimens. Species mobility, as estimated from species-specific dispersal rates, and tolerance to habitat deterioration, as estimated from change in fluctuating asymmetry with increasing habitat disturbance, explained 88% of the variation in patch occupancy among eight forest bird species. Occupancy increased with mobility and with tolerance to deterioration, where both variables contributed equally to this relationship. We conclude that individual-level study, such as of dispersal behavior and phenotypic development, can predict patterns of persistence at the species level. More generally, for conservation tactics to stand a high chance of success, they should include action both within sites, to minimize habitat deterioration, and across landscapes, to maximize dispersal.

We examined the effects of vegetation composition and structure on bird species diversity and richness of foraging guilds in the highland agricultural landscape of Nyandarua, Kenya. Bird point counts and vegetation surveys were undertaken during four sampling periods. Linear mixed models were used to examine the effects of vegetation variables on bird species diversity and richness of respective foraging guilds, and logistic generalised linear models used to examine vegetation effects on the presence/absence of the 17 most common bird species. Bird species diversity increased with increasing density of woody plant species and vegetation structural heterogeneity. Two gradients of increasing vegetation structural heterogeneity were most important in influencing bird community composition and had positive effects on species diversity and the presence of most of the species assessed: (1) increasing closed cover due to woody plant density, which also had positive effects on species richness of frugivores and nectarivores, but negative effects on carnivores, and (2) increasing fallow and cultivation versus decreasing grassland/pasture cover, which also had a positive effect on species richness of granivores and omnivores. This study reaffirms the need to maintain a structurally rich agricultural landscape for it to support agrobiodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]