Assessing Wetlands with Habitat Providers: A Landscape Approach for Handling Degraded Areas for Coal Mining

Land-use changes can decrease the number of individuals and species in certain areas, and diminish or impede movements in landscapes. Here we evaluated the potential of constructed wetlands as habitat providers for birds in coal mining areas in a landscape at the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We compared bird diversity in different kinds and proportions of natural and anthropogenic habitats. Analyses were performed for species with different ecological requirements to evaluate wetland with habitat providers. This allowed evaluating the sensibility of species from the species-specific level to the multispecific level (trophic guilds). About 70% of the bird species used two or more habitats to perform their vital functions, reflecting a key-role of landscape composition in explaining the similar traits between bird species and landscape connectivity. The approach presented in this study can be applied in degraded landscapes by coal mining: it will facilitate decisions on management to connectivity and conservation.