Abstract

Worldwide, the landscape has changed due to high levels of human intervention, population growth, and economic activities. In Southern Chile, the original Native Forest was the predominant ecosystem, widely replaced by farmlands, forestry plantations with exotic species, and scrub. This study aimed to assess bird diversity in different land uses in a territory initially from the same native forest ecosystem. Seasonal counts were used to characterize alpha, beta, and gamma diversities of each environment using Shannon and Wiener's and Pielou's equity index (alpha), the Bray Curtis index (beta), and bird species lists for the Los R & iacute;os Regi'& oacute;n (gamma). Differences among environments (Scrub of Ulex europaeus, Forestry Plantation, Agroecosystem, and Native Forest) were observed in the bird assemblages. The greatest diversity was found in agroecosystems and the lowest in scrublands dominated by the invasive U. europaeus. The heterogeneous ecosystems offered more suitable habitats with a greater diversity of birds, whereas the reverse occurs in homogeneous environments (Scrub of U. europaeus and Forestry Plantation). We discuss the role of productivity in explaining the differences in the diversity and importance of agroecosystems in conserving bird diversity compared to the original native forest.