BECAS
VIVANCO Constanza Guadalupe
artículos
Título:
Fire and distance from unburned forest influence bird assemblages in Southern Andean Yungas of Northwest Argentina: a case study
Autor/es:
MORALES, ADRIANA MARISEL; POLITI, NATALIA; RIVERA, LUIS OSVALDO; VIVANCO, CONSTANZA GUADALUPE; DEFOSSÉ, GUILLERMO EMILIO
Revista:
Fire Ecology
Editorial:
Springer
Referencias:
Lugar: Sidney; Año: 2020 vol. 16
Resumen:
Background: Wildfires affect vegetation structure, functions, and other attributes of forest ecosystems. Amongthese attributes, bird assemblages may be influenced by the distance from undisturbed to fire-disturbed forests.Information about this influence is essential for designing management plans aimed at conserving birds? diversity inundisturbed forests, which contributes to their sustainability. In Northwest Argentina, timber extraction and mancaused fires threaten the sustainability of Southern Andean Yungas forests. In this region, we evaluated, in relationto a reference unburned forest, the effects of close and distant fire-disturbed patches on bird assemblages,exploring also relationships between burned and unburned forest structures on bird assemblages. On each site, wedetermined forest structural variables, and twice per year, from 2015 to 2017, we recorded birds seen or heard onevery site, from dawn to 1000 hours, at 30 0.5 ha counting points.Results: Abundance and richness of bird species were lower in the unburned reference site than in close- anddistant-burned sites; the farther the distance of burned sites to the unburned site, the less similarity in birdassemblages. Bird assemblage abundance appeared to be associated with snag height and basal area. However,bird species in mature forests were present at all sites and outnumbered those typically found in forest edges, orsecondary or disturbed forests.Conclusions: Connected areas between unburned and burned forest patches provide habitat for birds livingin both environments. Preventing forest fragmentation by reducing the number and size of wildfires,promoting selective timber logging, and banning post-fire snag removal will help promote suitable habitat fordifferent bird assemblages and contribute to Yungas forests? sustainability. This study is the first step towardunderstanding how fire-patch distances to unburned forests may affect bird assemblages in subtropicalSouthern Andean Yungas forests in South America and provide a basis for comparison with other subtropicalecosystems around the world.