Museum collections indicate bird defaunation in a biodiversity hotspot

Abstract Ipanema National Forest, southeastern Brazil, once contained 340 bird species. Forest cover suffered for centuries from log exploitation and, as a result, most of the remaining forests are now an impoverished subset of the original vegetation. We show how the bird community changed over time by comparing historical and recent records. Currently, 228 species can be recorded, for a compilation of 410 species, of which 359 are documented. Some 89 forest species with historical records failed to be detected in recent surveys. Of the 72 Atlantic Forest or Cerrado endemic species, no more than 29 (40%) are still found. The bird community changed from one which used to be related to coastline rain forests to another, which relates more to drier semideciduous forests of the interior.

摘要 巴西东南部伊帕内玛国家森林公园（Ipanema National Forest）曾记录有340种鸟类。数百年来，该区域森林植被长期遭受伐木开发破坏，现存森林多为原始植被退化后的残次群落。本研究通过对比历史与近期观测记录，揭示了该区域鸟类群落的时间演替规律。目前可观测到228种鸟类，累计记录物种达410种，其中359种已得到文献证实。历史记录中的89种森林鸟类未在近期野外调查中被发现。在72种大西洋林（Atlantic Forest）或塞拉多（Cerrado）特有鸟类中，仅存不足29种（占比40%）。该区域鸟类群落已从原本关联沿海雨林的类群，转变为更贴近内陆干燥半落叶林的类群。