Imperial College London
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DrCristinaBanks-Leite

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)

Reader in Conservation Ecology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 2289c.banks

 
 
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Location

 

2.2MunroSilwood Park

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Chan:2020:10.1016/j.pecon.2020.09.002,
author = {Chan, A and Banks-Leite, C},
doi = {10.1016/j.pecon.2020.09.002},
journal = {Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation},
pages = {313--318},
title = {Habitat modification mediates the strength of trophic cascades on oak trees},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pecon.2020.09.002},
volume = {18},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Habitat modification is now a widespread phenomenon, impacting landscape structure, biophysical processes, food webs and biodiversity. These changes have trickle-down effects on trophic cascades: predators often become rarer, increasing prey populations, which then subject plants to higher levels of herbivory. How habitat modification mediates this trophic cascade, however, is poorly understood, and this is particularly true for temperate forests. Here we investigate if the strength of trophic cascades, defined as the magnitude of the effect of bird exclusion on leaf damage, varies along a gradient of increasing habitat modification, from forest interior to forest edge to open habitat, through an experimental manipulation of bird exclusion. We found that habitat modification reduces the number of bird observations, with trophic cascades being three times stronger in the forest interior than edge and open habitats. However, there is no corresponding increase in leaf damage with habitat modification in the presence of birds, suggesting that other taxa or factors may mediate leaf damage in modified habitats. Our findings suggest that even though habitat modification disrupts the functions that birds perform in the ecosystem, overall ecosystem function is not dramatically altered, possibly due to the functional redundancy of birds.
AU  - Chan,A
AU  - Banks-Leite,C
DO  - 10.1016/j.pecon.2020.09.002
EP  - 318
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 2530-0644
SP  - 313
TI  - Habitat modification mediates the strength of trophic cascades on oak trees
T2  - Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pecon.2020.09.002
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S253006442030050X?via%3Dihub
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/84620
VL  - 18
ER  -
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