Avifaunal responses after two decades of Polylepis forest restoration in central Argentina

BARRI, F; TOLEDO, M; BELLIS, LM; RENISON, D

Neotropical Biodiversity

Taylor and Francis

Año: 2021

The high Andean Polylepis woodlands are home to a unique biota, including anoutstanding avifauna. They are one of the most threatened mountain ecosystems worldwide;accordingly, they have been the object of the first restoration initiatives in SouthAmerica. Here we evaluated the effectiveness of 20-year Polylepis australis woodland restorationefforts to recover the woodland bird communities. We recorded bird diversityand abundance in a restoration site (with a high proportion of woodland) and ina control site, where no active restoration efforts were performed (with a highproportion of grasslands and bare soil), 15 and 20 years after the start of therestoration project. We compared these sites with reference mature woodlandavifauna using published records in the study region. In the restoration site,bird diversity increased over time, as well as abundances of species associatedwith Polylepis australis, whereas those parameters remained stable in the controlsite. Our results are the first evidence that active restoration of Polylepis entails passive restoration ofthe avifauna occurring in these unique upland forests.