Management of Palo Verde Wetland and of its Bird Communities Associated to their Different Habitats
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15359/rca.43-1.1Keywords:
Typha domingensis, wetlands, management, avian habitat use, Palo Verde, Costa Rica, seasonal dry tropical ccosystemsAbstract
Palo Verde National Park -Guanacaste, Costa Rica- is a RAMSAR Wetland of International Importance because it provides critical habitat for thousands of resident and migrating waterfowl and wading birds. Since the early 1980s, however, the park has been struggling to maintain bird habitat in the face of aggressive native cattail (Typha domingensis) expansion. This study examined the effect of cattail management, using a crushing technique called fangueo, on associated bird communities by comparing the area treated in January 2010 with two sites which had been treated in 2006, one of which has a diversity of habitats while the other is dominated by cattail. This study found that bird communities in cattail-dominated sites have lower diversity (Shannon diversity index) than those at other sites, but the bird community found in cattail sites is very different from the bird community found in hemi-marsh sites, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a mosaic of habitats within the marsh. Furthermore, a site last treated in 2006 was able to support a bird community indistinguishable from that found in recently treated fangueo sites. This suggests that some areas of the marsh do not need to be treated with fangueo on a yearly or bi-yearly basis and thus recommends further study of variations within the marsh with the goal of promoting natural resistance to cattail dominance.
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