Changes in bird assemblages during succession following disturbance in secondary wet forests in south-eastern Australia

Serong, Merrilyn; Lill, Alan

doi:10.1071/mu11057

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Turnover in bird assemblages was most evident in changing foraging group structure. These findings are consistent with the findings of age‐specific bird assemblages in (1) forest succession (Fisher ; Venier & Pearce ; Serong & Lill ); (2) habitat reconstruction following agriculture (Martin et al ); and (3) habitat restoration following mining (Nichols & Nichols ; Nichols & Grant ). The vegetation stage at which a bird species enters the succession is usually related to the development of key vegetation‐based habitat resources such as food plants, tree hollows, canopy gaps, and leaf litter (Loyn ; Smith ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Site vegetation characteristics are more important than landscape context in determining bird assemblages in revegetation

Gould

Mackey

2015

Restoration Ecology

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The effectiveness of revegetation in providing habitat for fauna is expected to be determined both by within-site factors and attributes of the landscape in which a revegetation site occurs. Most studies of fauna in revegetation have been conducted in landscapes that have been extensively cleared, modified or fragmented, and in Australia, predominantly in the southern temperate zone. We investigated how within-site vegetation attributes and landscape context attributes were related to bird species richness and composition in a chronosequence of post-mining rehabilitation sites within an otherwise intact landscape in tropical northern Australia. Our working hypothesis was that bird species richness in rehabilitating sites would be positively related to site vegetation structure and landscape context including (1) proximity to woodland and (2) the proportion of woodland within a 500-m buffer of rehabilitation sites. Within each of 67 sites, we sampled vegetation once and surveyed for birds eight times over 16 months. Landscape context variables were calculated using GIS. There were large differences between bird assemblages of woodland and rehabilitation sites and between age classes of rehabilitation. Bird assemblages were strongly related to site vegetation attributes across all rehabilitation sites. Proximity to woodland was only related to bird assemblages in rehabilitation sites older than 4 years old. We conclude that the relative importance of landscape context and site variables at any point in time will be a function of how closely vegetation within the revegetation site matches the habitat resource requirements of individual species.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Site vegetation characteristics are more important than landscape context in determining bird assemblages in revegetation

Gould

Mackey

2015

Restoration Ecology

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“…Unlike the situation in some other forest ecosystems (Dessecker and McCauley, 2001), no bird species is abundant and a specialist only in early successional forest more than three years old. However, some species are consistently abundant only in mid-to late succession, whilst others that are the focus of the present study are common throughout succession (Serong and Lill, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…However, two species exhibited stereotyped foraging stratum use and one stereotyped foraging location use during succession, suggesting that the strata and locations that they exploited provided the same or suitable alternative food resources throughout succession. Presumably bird species that were abundant only during a limited stage of secondary succession (Serong and Lill, 2012) lacked the plasticity in foraging stratum and location use exhibited by many persistent species or did not have suitable food resources available to them that could be acquired in the same stereotyped manner throughout succession. The White-throated Treecreeper (Climacteris leucophaea) (16-17.5 cm) could be an example.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sixty to 100 year old mature climax forest has a fairly open E. regnans canopy, a sparse subcanopy, a complex shrub/tree fern stratum and abundant ground litter cover (Loyn, 1985;Ashton and Attiwill, 1994;Serong and Lill, 2008). Bird abundance and species richness vary little during secondary succession in these forests (Serong and Lill, 2012). However, the composition of bird species assemblages alters chronologically during succession, the pattern and rate of change reflecting those of the regenerating vegetation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plasticity and Stereotypy in Avian Foraging during Secondary Succession in Temperate Forests

Serong

Lill

2016

Avian Biology Research

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Some bird species cannot persist during early secondary succession after natural or anthropogenic disturbance of Australian Mountain Ash ( Eucalyptus regnans) forest, whilst others remain abundant throughout regeneration. To conserve bird species diversity optimally in such forests, we need to know, inter alia, exactly why the latter species can persist after disturbance. Using a chronosequence approach, we documented four facets of foraging in a suite of these persistent species effectively covering 100 years of succession in E. regnans forest disturbed by wildfire or timber harvesting, namely the foraging strata, locations, substrates and behaviours used. Most species showed plasticity in their use of foraging strata and locations during succession, but four exhibited some limited stereotypy in these facets. In contrast, use of foraging substrates and behaviours was largely invariant within species during secondary succession. We suggest that switching foraging strata and locations was probably critical to persistence of most of these bird species during secondary succession, given the marked variation in structural and floristic variables that characterises this regeneration process. Some plasticity in foraging behaviour repertoire and substrate use was probably possible, but not beneficial. Although some resident bird species’ populations were severely reduced by disturbance in these forests, a substantial subset of species was sufficiently flexible in choosing foraging microhabitats to persist throughout secondary succession at pre-disturbance abundances.

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“…In Australia, where few species are thought to be restricted to recently burned shrubland or forest conditions, early colonists are viewed as generalists, and management concerns are focused on postfire decreases in late-succession specialists (Serong and Lill, 2012). Nevertheless, recent data from Lindenmayer (2014) show that a number of bird species decline in abundance 1-2 years after moderate to severe fire but then return to levels comparable to, or higher than, those in unburned forests within 3 years following fire.…”

Section: Black-backed Woodpeckermentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Bird Ecology to Learn About the Benefits of Severe Fire

Hutto

Bond

DellaSala

2015

The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires

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Changes in bird assemblages during succession following disturbance in secondary wet forests in south-eastern Australia

Cited by 13 publications

References 43 publications

Site vegetation characteristics are more important than landscape context in determining bird assemblages in revegetation

Site vegetation characteristics are more important than landscape context in determining bird assemblages in revegetation

Plasticity and Stereotypy in Avian Foraging during Secondary Succession in Temperate Forests

Using Bird Ecology to Learn About the Benefits of Severe Fire

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