Living on the edge: utilising lidar data to assess the importance of vegetation structure for avian diversity in fragmented woodlands and their edges

Context: In agricultural landscapes, small woodland patches can be important wildlife refuges. Their value in maintaining biodiversity may, however, be compromised by isolation, and so knowledge about the role of habitat structure is vital to understand the drivers of diversity. This study examined how avian diversity and abundance were related to habitat structure in four small woods in an agricultural landscape in eastern England. Objectives: The aims were to examine the edge effect on bird diversity and abundance, and the contributory role of vegetation structure. Specifically: what is the role of vegetation structure on edge effects, and which edge structures support the greatest bird diversity? Methods: Annual breeding bird census data for 28 species were combined with airborne lidar data in linear mixed models fitted separately at (i) the whole wood level, and (ii) for the woodland edges only. Results: Despite relatively small woodland areas (4.9–9.4 ha), bird diversity increased significantly towards the edges, being driven in part by vegetation structure. At the whole woods level, diversity was positively associated with increased vegetation above 0.5 m and especially with increasing vegetation density in the understorey layer, which was more abundant at the woodland edges. Diversity along the edges was largely driven by the density of vegetation below 4 m. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that bird diversity was maximised by a diverse vegetation structure across the wood and especially a dense understorey along the edge. These findings can assist bird conservation by guiding habitat management of remaining woodland patches

Assessing habitats and organism-habitat relationships by airborne laser scanning

Three-dimensional structure is a fundamental physical element of habitat. Because of the well-recognised link between vegetation structure and organism-habitat associations, many published studies that make use of airborne LiDAR for forest applications have results of potential relevance for habitat assessment. This chapter reviews those published studies that have made direct use of airborne LiDAR data for habitat assessment of individual species or groups of species in a woodland or forest context. This is followed by a case study of the authors’ own work at a study site in eastern England, Monks Wood National Nature Reserve. We conclude that airborne LiDAR has the capability for supplying a range of forest structural measures that are key elements of an organism’s habitat at the meso-scale. Examined in combination with detailed field ecology data on species distributions, abundances or biological activity, airborne LiDAR data can be used as an exploratory tool to advance ecological understanding by quantifying how forest structure impacts habitat use and thereby influences habitat quality