Different land-use types affect bird communities in the Kalahari, South Africa

Vegetation structure diversity between different plant communities has been shown to influence birds. We conducted this study to determine whether the diversity in vegetation structure in similar plant communities, due to land-use, had an effect on birds. Bird and vegetation surveys were conducted on four different land-use types in the Kalahari thornveld area of the North West Province of South Africa, and analysed using regression and multivariate analysis. Variations in vegetation structure because of land-use types showed a significant correlation with bird species diversity. Although seasonal changes were also shown to have an effect, the nonmetric multidimensional scaling plots of bird species diversity and vegetation structure showed similar relative positions. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]