Agricultural Landscape Modification Increases the Abundance of an Important Food Resource: Mistletoes, Birds and Brigalow

Hierarchical landscape approach to examine the influence of human modified landscape pattern on the abundance of A. quandang was investigated. Human landuse frequently altered landscape pattern through the concomitant processes of habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, with important implications for biodiversity. Vegetation clearance for agriculture reduced habitat area and patch size, increased number of patches, edge lengths, and the distance between patches. The results showed that hierarchical partitioning confirmed weak collinearity between the final explanatory variables, with relatively low joint effects compared to the independent effect. It was concluded that the mistletoe species benefited from some aspects of landscape modification but this was moderated by local factors such as bird disperser abundance and host condition.