Modeling driving forces of avian diversity in a spatial configuration surrounded by farm ponds

Farm ponds provide a home for birds and numerous species of aquatic animals in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Urbanization and development of infrastructure resulted in the gradual disappearance of these ponds. Currently, only 3800 ponds originally approximately 15.4 % remain, and 84.6 % of the surface area of the ponds has vanished. Aiming to protect avian diversity, this study used logistic regression analysis and the geostatistical approach to analyze the relationship between avian diversity and landscape structure, in an effort to elucidate the spatial driving force of avian diversity. We detected that regression-kriging (RK) was even more accurate than logistic regression (LR). In addition, the value of diversity (H′) measures may decrease instead of increase when evenness (J′) is increased. The results of this study also indicated that an exceedingly strong relationship existed among avian diversity and landscape scale, agricultural landscape indices, and pond landscape indices. The models predict that preservation of large areas of waterscapes and paddy landscapes result in greater diversity of avian species. Spatial estimation of the research area indicated that human activity substantially affected avian ecology, leading to reductions in avian diversity. Thus, the reduction of the area of ecological corridors due to urban development is expected to further reduce avian diversity in the Taoyuan region. Our approach can be used to effectively analyze the correlations between characteristics of ecosystems and the environmental landscape, to ensure that pondscapes can be appropriately maintained and ecological reserves designated to prevent further decline in avian diversity.