Assessing the effects of selective logging on birds in a Neotropical montane forest

POLITI NATALIA; RIVERA LUIS OSVALDO; HUNTER MALCOLM JR.

BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2012 vol. 21 p. 2131 - 2151

0960-3115

In tropical and subtropical forests there is limited information about how tointegrate sustainable timber management with the conservation of biodiversity. Weexamined the effect of selective logging on the bird community to help developmanagement guidelines to assure the conservation of biodiversity in forests managed fortimber production. The study design consisted of control and harvested plots in piedmontand cloud forests of the subtropical montane forests of the Andes in northwesternArgentina. We conducted bird point-count surveys combined with distance estimation.Breeding season bird community composition was more similar between control andlogged forest in both the cloud forest and piedmont, than between the two elevations,probably because Neotropical bird communities change dramatically along elevationalgradients. Within each elevation zone, community composition changed significantlybetween harvested and control forests. Both between and within each elevation zone nosignificant differences in bird density were detected. Similarly, when we analyzed birddensity according to diet guilds no general pattern could be extracted. However, we founda significantly greater density of cavity nesters and lower of non-cavity nesters in controlplots, probably because most trees that can develop suitable cavities were extracted inlogged plots and these plots had a greater structural diversity enabling more nestingresources. Grouping species according to their nesting habitat requirements has rarely beenused in the neotropics and other tropical and subtropical forests, but focusing managementattention on cavity nesters might address the most sensitive portion of the avian communityas well as other species dependent on trees likely to hold cavities.