CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Biodiversity conservation has become a joint goal of scientists and natural resource managers, requiring knowledge about the drivers that influence the structure and function of biotic assemblages. In southern Patagonian Nothofagus forests, birds are the most abundant and diverse vertebrates, and their communities structure were greatly impacted for the forest harvesting. Patagonian birds are known to have different requirements for nesting, breeding and feeding, but baseline information is lacking regarding their auto-ecology and community ecology. We chose birds to analyze habitat and seasonal drivers of community dynamics, to determine conservation purposes, due to this information is requisite to better manage Nothofagus forest landscapes and their associated biota. We first characterized forest structure and understory floristic composition in mixed broadleaved forests of deciduous and deciduous-evergreen species on the southern coast of Tierra del Fuego National Park, Argentina. At each site, bird assemblages were described using point counts, checklists and mist-netting. Bird species richness, density and mass between habitat and seasonal variables were analyzed with ANOVAs and multivariate methods. Forest structure and understory plant communities influenced avian abundance and assemblage. Additionally, the variations observed between seasons were interpreted as a result of differential uses by particular species of each habitat type during certain times of year. Finally, it was not possible to define a particular forest type with greater conservation value for birds; each had a specific assemblage of bird species. Consequently, managers should ensure a full representation of habitats to conserve the region?s bird diversity, which has also been described for forest invertebrates and understory plants.