Maintaining ecosystem resilience: functional responses of tree cavity nesters to logging in temperate forests of the Americas

0106 biological sciences 570 Canada Biología Science Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Forests 01 natural sciences Article Nesting Behavior Trees Birds FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY LOGGING https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.6 Animals 14. Life underwater Chile https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1 Forest Sciences Ecosystem Geography Nicho (Ecología) Plant Sciences Q R Agriculture Genetics and Genomics Biodiversity 15. Life on land CAVITY-NESTING VERTEBRATES Resiliencia (Ecología) - ChileTala de bosques - Chile TEMPERATE FOREST Medicine Americas
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04733-2 Publication Date: 2017-06-26T11:59:34Z
ABSTRACT
AbstractLogging often reduces taxonomic diversity in forest communities, but little is known about how this biodiversity loss affects the resilience of ecosystem functions. We examined how partial logging and clearcutting of temperate forests influenced functional diversity of birds that nest in tree cavities. We used point-counts in a before-after-control-impact design to examine the effects of logging on the value, range, and density of functional traits in bird communities in Canada (21 species) and Chile (16 species). Clearcutting, but not partial logging, reduced diversity in both systems. The effect was much more pronounced in Chile, where logging operations removed critical nesting resources (large decaying trees), than in Canada, where decaying aspenPopulus tremuloideswere retained on site. In Chile, logging was accompanied by declines in species richness, functional richness (amount of functional niche occupied by species), community-weighted body mass (average mass, weighted by species densities), and functional divergence (degree of maximization of divergence in occupied functional niche). In Canada, clearcutting did not affect species richness but nevertheless reduced functional richness and community-weighted body mass. Although some cavity-nesting birds can persist under intensive logging operations, their ecosystem functions may be severely compromised unless future nest trees can be retained on logged sites.
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