Research by the Ministry of Agriculture’s Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute suggests that the richness of bird species increases with landscape heterogeneity.
A research team from the institute analyzed how landscape heterogeneity and total habitat area affect the number of bird species based on data from the Taiwan Breeding Bird Survey.
The results showed a significant hump-shaped association of bird species with forest and farmland coverage, meaning that a balanced proportion of diverse land cover types, such as a mixture of farms and forests, would attract the most bird species, the institute said.
Photo courtesy of the Cieding Visitors’ Association
For example, the Tianliaoyang Wetland (田寮洋濕地) in New Taipei City and its surrounding forests have documented visits of more than 100 bird species within a single day every year, it said.
For forest birds, the number of bird species rose with the total area of forests regardless of the size of the survey area, which ranged from a radius of 100m and 500m to 1km and 2km, the institute said.
However, the richness of farmland birds increased significantly with the total farmland area only when the survey area was limited to a radius of 100m, it said.
“Within a radius of 100m, farmland boosts bird species diversity, whether it is a single large farm or multiple small farms,” the institute said.
The results also showed that Taiwan’s alien bird species, or introduced birds, preferred fragmented landscapes, as their richness increased with edge density, an indicator used to measure the configurational heterogeneity of a landscape, it said.
The team is now researching frog habitats using the same method to examine whether frog species diversity is also significantly linked to landscape heterogeneity, the institute said, adding that the goal is to propose a more comprehensive strategy to help preserve biodiversity.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not