scholarly journals Fire and Mechanical Forest Management Treatments Support Different Portions of the Bird Community in Fire-Suppressed Forests

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Lance Jay Roberts ◽  
Ryan Burnett ◽  
Alissa Fogg
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Fire Disturbance ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Commercial Thinning ◽  
Silvicultural Management ◽  
Total Community

Silvicultural treatments, fire, and insect outbreaks are the primary disturbance events currently affecting forests in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, a region where plants and wildlife are highly adapted to a frequent-fire disturbance regime that has been suppressed for decades. Although the effects of both fire and silviculture on wildlife have been studied by many, there are few studies that directly compare their long-term effects on wildlife communities. We conducted avian point counts from 2010 to 2019 at 1987 in situ field survey locations across eight national forests and collected fire and silvicultural treatment data from 1987 to 2016, resulting in a 20-year post-disturbance chronosequence. We evaluated two categories of fire severity in comparison to silvicultural management (largely pre-commercial and commercial thinning treatments) as well as undisturbed locations to model their influences on abundances of 71 breeding bird species. More species (48% of the community) reached peak abundance at moderate-high-severity-fire locations than at low-severity fire (8%), silvicultural management (16%), or undisturbed (13%) locations. Total community abundance was highest in undisturbed dense forests as well as in the first few years after silvicultural management and lowest in the first few years after moderate-high-severity fire, then abundance in all types of disturbed habitats was similar by 10 years after disturbance. Even though the total community abundance was relatively low in moderate-high-severity-fire habitats, species diversity was the highest. Moderate-high-severity fire supported a unique portion of the avian community, while low-severity fire and silvicultural management were relatively similar. We conclude that a significant portion of the bird community in the Sierra Nevada region is dependent on moderate-high-severity fire and thus recommend that a prescribed and managed wildfire program that incorporates a variety of fire effects will best maintain biodiversity in this region.

Influence of wildfire severity on geomorphic features and riparian vegetation of forested streams of the Sierra Nevada, California, USA

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 611
Author(s):  
Breeanne K. Jackson ◽  
S. Mažeika P. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Riparian Vegetation ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Riparian Ecosystems ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Sediment Size ◽  
Rim Fire ◽  
Geomorphic Features ◽  
Biodiversity And Ecosystem Function ◽  
Riparian Plant

Fires are a common feature of many landscapes, with numerous and complex ecological consequences. In stream ecosystems, fire can strongly influence fluvial geomorphic characteristics and riparian vegetation, which are structural components of stream–riparian ecosystems that contribute to biodiversity and ecosystem function. However, the effects of fire severity on stream–riparian ecosystems in California’s Sierra Nevada region (USA) are not well described, yet critical for effectively informing fire management and policy. At 12 stream reaches paired by fire severity (one high-severity burned, one low-severity burned), no significant differences were found in riparian plant community cover and composition or stream geomorphic characteristics 2–15 years following wildfire. In addition, minimal changes in riparian vegetation and stream geomorphic properties were observed in the first summer following the extensive and severe Rim Fire. However, an upstream-to-downstream influence of multiple fire occurrences was observed over the previous 81 years within each catchment on stream geomorphic metrics, including sediment size, embeddedness and channel geometry, at our study reaches. The inconsistent effects of wildfire on stream–riparian vegetation and geomorphic characteristics over space and time may be related to time since fire and precipitation.

scholarly journals Fuel dynamics and reburn severity following high-severity fire in a Sierra Nevada, USA, mixed-conifer forest

Fire Ecology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie M. Lydersen ◽  
Brandon M. Collins ◽  
Michelle Coppoletta ◽  
Melissa R. Jaffe ◽  
Hudson Northrop ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Dead Wood ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Additive Models ◽  
Fuel Load ◽  
Shrub Cover ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Fuel Dynamics

Abstract Background High-severity fire in forested landscapes often produces a post-fire condition of high shrub cover and large loads of dead wood. Given the increasing patch size of high-severity fire and the tendency for these areas to reburn at high severity in subsequent wildfires, post-fire management often targets restoration of these areas. However, these areas are challenging to manage, in part due to limited knowledge of post-fire fuel dynamics over space and time and uncertainties in how specific fuel components such as snags and logs influence future fire severity. In this study, we used high-resolution aerial imagery collected nine years after a wildfire to measure snags, logs, and shrub cover within high-severity patches, and to assess how fuel development influenced reburn severity in a subsequent wildfire. Results The abundance of snags, logs, and shrubs following high-severity fire varied with elevation and slope steepness; however, generalized additive models explained only 6 to 21% of their variation over the post-fire landscape. High densities of both snags and logs were associated with high reburn severity in a subsequent fire, while shrub cover had a marginally insignificant (P = 0.0515) effect on subsequent fire severity. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that high levels of large dead wood, which is often not considered in fire behavior modeling, corresponded with repeated high-severity fire effects. Future research should leverage the increasing availability of high-resolution imagery to improve our understanding of fuel load patterns in space and time and how they may impact landscape resilience to facilitate management planning for post-fire forest landscapes.

scholarly journals Is fire severity increasing in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA?

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad T. Hanson ◽  
Dennis C. Odion
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
High Severity ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Fire Extent

Research in the Sierra Nevada range of California, USA, has provided conflicting results about current trends of high-severity fire. Previous studies have used only a portion of available fire severity data, or considered only a portion of the Sierra Nevada. Our goal was to investigate whether a trend in fire severity is occurring in Sierra Nevada conifer forests currently, using satellite imagery. We analysed all available fire severity data, 1984–2010, over the whole ecoregion and found no trend in proportion, area or patch size of high-severity fire. The rate of high-severity fire has been lower since 1984 than the estimated historical rate. Responses of fire behaviour to climate change and fire suppression may be more complex than assumed. A better understanding of spatiotemporal patterns in fire regimes is needed to predict future fire regimes and their biological effects. Mechanisms underlying the lack of an expected climate- and time since fire-related trend in high-severity fire need to be identified to help calibrate projections of future fire. The effects of climate change on high-severity fire extent may remain small compared with fire suppression. Management could shift from a focus on reducing extent or severity of fire in wildlands to protecting human communities from fire.

Influence of fire regime and other habitat factors on a eucalypt forest bird community in south-eastern Australia in the 1980s

2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 312
Author(s):  
Peter Smith ◽  
Judy Smith
Keyword(s):  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Tree Canopy ◽  
Forest Bird ◽  
Blue Mountains ◽  
Eucalypt Forest ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Wide Range

We investigated bird habitat relationships in extensive eucalypt forest in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, in 1986–87, assessing the importance of fire regime variables compared with other habitat variables. Our study sites encompassed a wide range of postfire ages, fire frequencies and fire severity, but we found no major bird community differences corresponding to differences in fire regime. The more common forest bird species appeared well adapted to fire regime variation in the 1980s. Tree canopy height was a far greater influence, with more species and more birds in taller forests (interpreted as a result of higher soil fertility leading to higher productivity of bird foods and greater structural complexity in taller forests). Other trends were fewer birds where there was a rainforest understorey under the eucalypts (reflecting the general scarcity of rainforest birds in the Blue Mountains), and more birds where nectar-rich flowers were more abundant (reflecting the abundance of nectarivorous birds in the Blue Mountains, especially over winter). The climate has changed since the 1980s and fires threaten to become much more severe, extensive and frequent. How these changes will impact on forest birds, and what management responses are required, is a critical area for further study.

scholarly journals Effects of Soil Abiotic and Biotic Factors on Tree Seedling Regeneration Following a Boreal Forest Wildfire

Ecosystems ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa S. Ibáñez ◽  
David A. Wardle ◽  
Michael J. Gundale ◽  
Marie-Charlotte Nilsson
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Betula Pendula ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Tree Regeneration ◽  
Soil Biota ◽  
Fire Disturbance ◽  
Burn Severity ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
Tree Seedling ◽  
Seedling Regeneration

AbstractWildfire disturbance is important for tree regeneration in boreal ecosystems. A considerable amount of literature has been published on how wildfires affect boreal forest regeneration. However, we lack understanding about how soil-mediated effects of fire disturbance on seedlings occur via soil abiotic properties versus soil biota. We collected soil from stands with three different severities of burning (high, low and unburned) and conducted two greenhouse experiments to explore how seedlings of tree species (Betula pendula, Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies) performed in live soils and in sterilized soil inoculated by live soil from each of the three burning severities. Seedlings grown in live soil grew best in unburned soil. When sterilized soils were reinoculated with live soil, seedlings of P. abies and P. sylvestris grew better in soil from low burn severity stands than soil from either high severity or unburned stands, demonstrating that fire disturbance may favor post-fire regeneration of conifers in part due to the presence of soil biota that persists when fire severity is low or recovers quickly post-fire. Betula pendula did not respond to soil biota and was instead driven by changes in abiotic soil properties following fire. Our study provides strong evidence that high fire severity creates soil conditions that are adverse for seedling regeneration, but that low burn severity promotes soil biota that stimulates growth and potential regeneration of conifers. It also shows that species-specific responses to abiotic and biotic soil characteristics are altered by variation in fire severity. This has important implications for tree regeneration because it points to the role of plant–soil–microbial feedbacks in promoting successful establishment, and potentially successional trajectories and species dominance in boreal forests in the future as fire regimes become increasingly severe through climate change.

scholarly journals Testing the Likeable, Therefore Abundant Hypothesis: Bird Species Likeability by Urban Residents Varies Significantly with Species Traits

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 487
Author(s):  
Lillian Collins ◽  
Grant D. Paton ◽  
Sara A. Gagné
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Species Conservation ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Community Change ◽  
Habitat Availability ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Behavioral Traits

The urbanization of landscapes filters bird communities to favor particular species traits, driven in part by the changes that homeowners make to the amount and quality of habitat in yards. We suggest that an ultimate driver of these proximate mechanisms underlying bird community change with respect to urbanization is the likeability of species traits by urban residents. We hypothesize that bird species likeability, modulated by species traits, influences the degree to which homeowners alter the availability and quality of habitat on their properties and thereby affects species population sizes in urbanized landscapes. We refer to this new hypothesis as the Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis. The Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis predicts that (1) bird species likeability varies with species morphological and behavioral traits, (2) homeowners use trait-based likeability as a motivator to modify habitat availability and quality on their properties, and (3) residential habitat availability and quality influences species populations at landscape scales. We tested the first prediction of the Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis using a survey of 298 undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who were asked to rank their preferences for 85 forest generalist and edge/open country songbird species grouped according to 10 morphological and behavioral traits. Survey respondents preferred very small, primarily blue or black species that are insectivorous, aerial or bark foragers, residents, and culturally unimportant. On the other hand, respondents disliked large or very large, primarily yellow or orange species that forage on the ground and/or forage by flycatching, are migratory, and are culturally important. If the Likeable, therefore Abundant Hypothesis is true, natural resource managers and planners could capitalize on the high likeability of species that are nevertheless negatively affected by urbanization to convince homeowners and residents to actively manage their properties for species conservation.

Bird community structure in natural and urbanized habitats along an altitudinal gradient in Pauri district (Garhwal Himalaya) of Uttarakhand state, India

Biologia ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Archana Naithani ◽  
Dinesh Bhatt
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Altitudinal Gradient ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Base Line ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Forest Habitat ◽  
Rarefaction Analysis

AbstractIn the Indian subcontinent there is hardly any study that compares the bird community structure of urban/suburban areas with those of forest habitat. The present survey identified diverse assemblages of birds in the Pauri district at different elevations. A total of 125 bird species belonging to 40 families including two least count species (Lophura leucomelanos and Pucrasia marcolopha) were recorded during this survey in the forest and urbanized habitats of Pauri District (Garhwal Hiamalaya) of Uttarakhand state, India. The high elevation (Pauri 1600–2100 m a.s.l.), mid elevation (Srikot-Khanda 900–1300 m a.s.l.) and low elevation (Srinagar 500–900 m a.s.l.) contributed 88.8%, 63.2% and 58.4% of the total species respectively. Rarefaction analysis and Shannon diversity index showed that the high elevation forest habitat had highest bird species richness (BSR) and bird species diversity (BSD) followed by the mid and then the low elevation forests. BSR and BSD fluctuated across seasons at all elevations but not across habitat types. Present study provides a base line data about avian community composition in urbanized and natural habitats along altitudinal gradient in the study area. This information may be useful to the conservation biologists for the better management and conservation of the avifauna in the Western Himalaya, a part of one of the hot biodiversity spots of the world.

Post-fire survival and flushing in three Sierra Nevada conifers with high initial crown scorch

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad T. Hanson ◽  
Malcolm P. North
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Pinus Ponderosa ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Conifer Species ◽  
Mature Trees ◽  
Salvage Logging ◽  
Abies Magnifica ◽  
Crown Scorch ◽  
Tree Survival ◽  
Large Trees

With growing debate over the impacts of post-fire salvage logging in conifer forests of the western USA, managers need accurate assessments of tree survival when significant proportions of the crown have been scorched. The accuracy of fire severity measurements will be affected if trees that initially appear to be fire-killed prove to be viable after longer observation. Our goal was to quantify the extent to which three common Sierra Nevada conifer species may ‘flush’ (produce new foliage in the year following a fire from scorched portions of the crown) and survive after fire, and to identify tree or burn characteristics associated with survival. We found that, among ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex. Laws) and Jeffrey pines (Pinus jeffreyi Grev. & Balf) with 100% initial crown scorch (no green foliage following the fire), the majority of mature trees flushed, and survived. Red fir (Abies magnifica A. Murr.) with high crown scorch (mean = 90%) also flushed, and most large trees survived. Our results indicate that, if flushing is not taken into account, fire severity assessments will tend to overestimate mortality and post-fire salvage could remove many large trees that appear dead but are not.

scholarly journals An assessment of the distribution, population size and conservation status of the Santa Marta Foliage-gleaner Automolus rufipectus: a Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta endemic

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
ESTEBAN BOTERO-DELGADILLO ◽  
NICHOLAS BAYLY ◽  
CAMILA GÓMEZ ◽  
PAULO C. PULGARÍN-R. ◽  
CARLOS ANDRÉS PÁEZ
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Environmental Niche ◽  
Coffee Plantations ◽  
Habitat Transformation ◽  
Elevation Range ◽  
Area Of Occupancy

SummaryThe Santa Marta Foliage-gleaner Automolus rufipectus is one of 19 endemic bird species found in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM) in northern Colombia but until recently it was considered a sub-species of the Ruddy Foliage-gleaner Automolus rubiginosus. Consequently, published information on its distribution and ecology is lacking, and while it is classified as near- threatened, this designation was based on limited quantitative data. To improve our knowledge of the Santa Marta Foliage-gleaner’s geographical distribution, elevation range, population density, habitat use and conservation status, we analysed both historical and recent site locality records and carried out variable distance transects within forested habitats and shade coffee plantations. We modelled the environmental niche of the species and subsequently estimated its extent of occurrence and area of occupancy, as well as population size. Our results consistently showed that the distribution of the Santa Marta Foliage-gleaner is more restricted than previously considered, both geographically and by elevation (we redefine elevation range as 600–1,875 m). This suggests that the species is more at risk of habitat transformation and combined with our estimates of population size (< 10,000 individuals), it is likely that the species will be uplisted to a higher threat category. More positively, and contrary to published accounts, we found that approximately 40% of the species’ range lies within protected areas. Nevertheless, we recommend the implementation of strategies to maintain forest cover on the western flank of the SNSM and further research to better define the species’ habitat needs and population dynamics.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document