scholarly journals Fire, drought and flooding rains: The effect of climatic extremes on bird species’ responses to time since fire

Author(s):  
Jemima Connell ◽  
Mark A. Hall ◽  
Dale G. Nimmo ◽  
Simon J. Watson ◽  
Michael F. Clarke
2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 1074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Hutto ◽  
David A. Patterson

We conducted bird surveys in 10 of the first 11 years following a mixed-severity fire in a dry, low-elevation mixed-conifer forest in western Montana, United States. By defining fire in terms of fire severity and time-since-fire, and then comparing detection rates for species inside 15 combinations of fire severity and time-since-fire, with their rates of detection in unburned (but otherwise similar) forest outside the burn perimeter, we were able to assess more nuanced effects of fire on 50 bird species. A majority of species (60%) was detected significantly more frequently inside than outside the burn. It is likely that the beneficial effects of fire for some species can be detected only under relatively narrow combinations of fire severity and time-since-fire. Because most species responded positively and uniquely to some combination of fire severity and time-since-fire, these results carry important management implications. Specifically, the variety of burned-forest conditions required by fire-dependent bird species cannot be created through the application of relatively uniform low-severity prescribed fires, through land management practices that serve to reduce fire severity or through post-fire salvage logging, which removes the dead trees required by most disturbance-dependent bird species.


The Condor ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria A. Saab ◽  
Robin E. Russell ◽  
Jonathan G. Dudley

Abstract Abstract We monitored the nest densities and nest survival of seven cavity-nesting bird species, including four open-space foragers (American Kestrel [Falco sparverius], Lewis's Woodpecker [Melanerpes lewis], Western Bluebird [Sialia mexicana], and Mountain Bluebird [S. currucoides]) and three wood-foragers (Hairy Woodpecker [Picoides villosus], Black-backed Woodpecker [P. arcticus], and Northern Flicker [Colaptes auratus]), after two wildfires (one partially salvage-logged and one unlogged) in western Idaho from 1994–2004. We estimated the relationship between nest density and time since fire, tested for statistical differences in nest densities and nest survival in the partially salvage-logged vs. unlogged wildfires, and tested for differences in nest survival between early (1–4 years after fire) and late (5–12 years after fire) postfire periods. Nest densities of open-space foragers and Northern Flickers generally increased with time since fire, whereas nest densities of Black-backed and Hairy Woodpeckers peaked 4–5 years postfire. Nest densities of wood-foraging species and Mountain Bluebirds were significantly higher in the unlogged burn, whereas Lewis's Woodpeckers had significantly higher nest densities in the partially logged burn. Kestrels tended to favor the partially logged burn, while Western Bluebird nest densities were nearly equal in both burned areas. For most species, postfire period and treatment (partially logged vs. unlogged) had little influence on nest survival. However, Hairy Woodpecker nest survival was significantly lower in the partially logged burn versus the unlogged wildfire in the early postfire period, and Lewis's Woodpecker nest survival was significantly reduced in the later postfire period versus the early postfire period in the partially logged burn. Importantly, the salvage logging was designed to retain more than half of the snags over 23 cm in diameter, which provided suitable nesting habitat for open-space foragers during the decade following fire.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anderson Saldanha Bueno ◽  
Sidnei M. Dantas ◽  
Luiza Magalli Pinto Henriques ◽  
Carlos A. Peres

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Morelli ◽  
Yanina

ContextThe negative association between elevation and species richness is a well-recognized pattern in macro-ecology. ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate changes in functional evenness of breeding bird communities along an elevation gradient in Europe. MethodsUsing the bird data from the EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds we estimated an index of functional evenness which can be assumed as a measure of the potential resilience of communities.ResultsOur findings confirm the existence of a negative association between elevation and bird species richness in all European eco regions. However, we also explored a novel aspect of this relationship, important for conservation: Our findings provide evidence at large spatial scale of a negative association between the functional evenness (potential community resilience) and elevation, independent of the eco region. We also found that the Natura2000 protected areas covers the territory most in need of protection, those characterized by bird communities with low potential resilience, in hilly and mountainous areas.ConclusionsThese results draw attention to European areas occupied by bird communities characterized by a potential lower capacity to respond to strong ecological changes, and, therefore, potentially more exposed to risks for conservation.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gretchen F. Wagner ◽  
Emeline Mourocq ◽  
Michael Griesser

Biparental care systems are a valuable model to examine conflict, cooperation, and coordination between unrelated individuals, as the product of the interactions between the parents influences the fitness of both individuals. A common experimental technique for testing coordinated responses to changes in the costs of parental care is to temporarily handicap one parent, inducing a higher cost of providing care. However, dissimilarity in experimental designs of these studies has hindered interspecific comparisons of the patterns of cost distribution between parents and offspring. Here we apply a comparative experimental approach by handicapping a parent at nests of five bird species using the same experimental treatment. In some species, a decrease in care by a handicapped parent was compensated by its partner, while in others the increased costs of care were shunted to the offspring. Parental responses to an increased cost of care primarily depended on the total duration of care that offspring require. However, life history pace (i.e., adult survival and fecundity) did not influence parental decisions when faced with a higher cost of caring. Our study highlights that a greater attention to intergenerational trade-offs is warranted, particularly in species with a large burden of parental care. Moreover, we demonstrate that parental care decisions may be weighed more against physiological workload constraints than against future prospects of reproduction, supporting evidence that avian species may devote comparable amounts of energy into survival, regardless of life history strategy.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gretchen F. Wagner ◽  
Emeline Mourocq ◽  
Michael Griesser

Predation of offspring is the main cause of reproductive failure in many species, and the mere fear of offspring predation shapes reproductive strategies. Yet, natural predation risk is ubiquitously variable and can be unpredictable. Consequently, the perceived prospect of predation early in a reproductive cycle may not reflect the actual risk to ensuing offspring. An increased variance in investment across offspring has been linked to breeding in unpredictable environments in several taxa, but has so far been overlooked as a maternal response to temporal variation in predation risk. Here, we experimentally increased the perceived risk of nest predation prior to egg-laying in seven bird species. Species with prolonged parent-offspring associations increased their intra-brood variation in egg, and subsequently offspring, size. High risk to offspring early in a reproductive cycle can favour a risk-spreading strategy particularly in species with the greatest opportunity to even out offspring quality after fledging.


2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. SEITZ

Modernization of agriculture, economic development and population increase after the end of the Thirty Years' War caused authorities in many parts of Germany to decree the eradication of so-called pest animals, including the House Sparrow. Farmers were given targets, and had to deliver the heads of sparrows in proportion to the size of their farms or pay fines. At the end of the eighteenth century German ornithologists argued against the eradication of the sparrows. During the mid-nineteenth century, C. L. Gloger, the pioneer of bird protection in Germany, emphasized the value of the House Sparrow in controlling insect plagues. Many decrees were abolished because either they had not been obeyed, or had resulted in people protecting sparrows so that they always had enough for their “deliveries”. Surprisingly, various ornithologists, including Ernst Hartert and the most famous German bird conservationist Freiherr Berlepsch, joined in the war against sparrows at the beginning of the twentieth century, because sparrows were regarded as competitors of more useful bird species. After the Second World War, sparrows were poisoned in large numbers. Persecution of sparrows ended in Germany in the 1970s. The long period of persecution had a significant but not long-lasting impact on House Sparrow populations, and therefore cannot be regarded as a factor in the recent decline of this species in urban and rural areas of western and central Europe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sutarto Kusuma Indra ◽  
Kustiati Kustiati ◽  
Rafdinal Rafdinal

Quality degradation, modification, and habitat loss are significant threats to bird species. The natural habitat of birds has been modified into residential land and facilities to meet the needs of human life as happened at Tanjungpura University. This study aims to determine of birds species at Tanjungpura University. Observations were carried out from January to March 2019. The method used in collecting the data from bird was “Encounter rates” which was conducted in the morning starting at 6 – 9 am and at 3 - 6 pm. The data obtained were analyzed with the formula of simple abundance scale and frequency of attendance. The birds found at Universitas Tanjungpura are 28 species classified into 23 genera, 17 families, and seven orders. Birds found to have an abundance order scale are classified into abundant, general, frequent and, unusual categories. Birds included in the abundant category are Collocalia fuciphaga and Passer montanus. The types of bird foods at Tanjungpura University consist of frugivore, insectivore, granivore, herbivore, carnivore, piscivore, omnivore, molluscivore, and nectarivore. The value of attendance frequency have range between 10-100%. The bird species with highest frequency of attendance’s value is Passer montanus, Pycnonotus aurigaster, Pycnonotus goiavier, Collocalia fuciphaga, and Anthreptes malacensis.


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