Wildlife responses to thinning and burning treatments in southwestern conifer forests: A meta-analysis

Kalies, Elizabeth L.; Chambers, Christopher P.; Covington, W. Wallace

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2009.10.024

Cited by 121 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Recently, more emphasis has been placed on not only reducing fire hazard through forest thinning, but designing treatments to simulate a heterogeneous stand structure more characteristic of the past (Carey, 2003;North et al, 2009;Verschuyl et al, 2011). Our results on the impact of treatments on individual species support recent syntheses that suggest that forest thinning through the removal of small diameter trees typical of a fuel reduction prescription has a neutral to positive effect on many avian species (Hurteau et al, 2008;Gaines et al, 2010;Kalies et al, 2010;Verschuyl et al, 2011). Our results are therefore consistent with previous studies that suggest modest responses by avifauna to removal of small diameter trees, but our Bayesian hierarchical model provides further insight into how different treatments may affect the less commonly occurring species, species for which inferences are usually not possible under different statistical approaches due to small sample sizes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Simulating avian species and foraging group responses to fuel reduction treatments in coniferous forests

White¹,

Zipkin²,

Manley³

et al. 2013

Forest Ecology and Management

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a b s t r a c tOver a century of fire suppression activities have altered the structure and composition of mixed conifer forests throughout the western United States. In the absence of fire, fuels have accumulated in these forests causing concerns over the potential for catastrophic wildfires. Fuel reduction treatments are being used on federal and state lands to reduce the threat of wildfire by mechanically removing biomass. Although these treatments result in a reduction in fire hazard, their impact on wildlife is less clear. We use a multi-species occupancy modeling approach to build habitat-suitability models for 46 upland forest birds found in the Lake Tahoe Basin in the Sierra Nevada based on forest structure and abiotic variables. Using a Bayesian hierarchical framework, we predict species-specific and community-level responses to changes in forest structure and make inferences about responses of important avian foraging guilds. Disparities within and among foraging group responses to canopy cover, tree size and shrub cover emphasized the complexities in managing forests to meet biodiversity goals. Based on our species-specific model results, we predicted changes in species richness and community similarity under forest prescriptions representing three management practices: no active management, a typical fuel reduction treatment that emphasizes spacing between trees, and a thinning prescription that creates structural heterogeneity. Simulated changes to structural components of the forest analogous to management practices to reduce fuel loads clearly affected foraging groups differentially despite variability in responses within guilds. Although species richness was predicted to decrease slightly under both simulated fuels reduction treatments, the prescription that incorporated structural heterogeneity retained marginally higher species richness. The composition of communities supported by different management alternatives was influenced by urbanization and management practice, emphasizing the importance of creating heterogeneity at the landscape scale.Published by Elsevier B.V.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Simulating avian species and foraging group responses to fuel reduction treatments in coniferous forests

White¹,

Zipkin²,

Manley³

et al. 2013

Forest Ecology and Management

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“…In virtually all cases, we took the mean of species abundances across years to avoid pseudoreplication and lack of independence in observations. Where studies had just one replicate measured over time, taking the mean abundance across years also permitted us to estimate variance to properly weight studies and avoid use of proxy weighting schemes (e.g., weighting by plot size; Kalies et al 2010). Two exceptions (Allen et al 2006, Kotliar et al 2007) occurred where authors analyzed two independently collected and spatially discrete data sets and provided separate results.…”

Section: Study Selection and Data Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Meta-analysis of avian and small-mammal response to fire severity and fire surrogate treatments in U.S. fire-prone forests

Fontaine¹,

Kennedy²

2012

Ecological Applications

108

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Abstract. Management in fire-prone ecosystems relies widely upon application of prescribed fire and/or fire surrogate (e.g., forest thinning) treatments to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem function. Recently, published literature examining wildlife response to fire and fire management has increased rapidly. However, none of this literature has been synthesized quantitatively, precluding assessment of consistent patterns of wildlife response among treatment types. Using meta-analysis, we examined the scientific literature on vertebrate demographic responses to burn severity (low/moderate, high), fire surrogates (forest thinning), and fire and fire surrogate combined treatments in the most extensively studied fire-prone, forested biome (forests of the United States). Effect sizes (magnitude of response) and their 95% confidence limits (response consistency) were estimated for each species-by-treatment combination with two or more observations. We found 41 studies of 119 bird and 17 smallmammal species that examined short-term responses ( 4 years) to thinning, low/moderateand high-severity fire, and thinning plus prescribed fire; data on other taxa and at longer time scales were too sparse to permit quantitative assessment. At the stand scale (,50 ha), thinning and low/moderate-severity fire demonstrated similar response patterns in these forests. Combined thinning plus prescribed fire produced a higher percentage of positive responses. High-severity fire provoked stronger responses, with a majority of species possessing higher or lower effect sizes relative to fires of lower severity. In the short term and at fine spatial scales, fire surrogate forest-thinning treatments appear to effectively mimic low/moderate-severity fire, whereas low/moderate-severity fire is not a substitute for high-severity fire. The varied response of taxa to each of the four conditions considered makes it clear that the full range of fire-based disturbances (or their surrogates) is necessary to maintain a full complement of vertebrate species, including fire-sensitive taxa. This is especially true for high-severity fire, where positive responses from many avian taxa suggest that this disturbance (either as wildfire or prescribed fire) should be included in management plans where it is consistent with historic fire regimes and where maintenance of regional vertebrate biodiversity is a goal.

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“…In general, there is a negative response to intensive logging, but a neutral to positive response to thinning (see meta-analyses by Kalies et al, 2010;Verschuyl et al, 2011). The uniformity of thinning through space and thinning intensity can drive the magnitude and direction of responses , particularly for bird species (Hayes et al, 2003;Hagar et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long term thinning and logging in Australian cypress pine forest: Changes in habitat attributes and response of fauna

Eyre¹,

Ferguson²,

Kennedy³

et al. 2015

Biological Conservation

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Wildlife responses to thinning and burning treatments in southwestern conifer forests: A meta-analysis

Cited by 121 publications

References 59 publications

Simulating avian species and foraging group responses to fuel reduction treatments in coniferous forests

Simulating avian species and foraging group responses to fuel reduction treatments in coniferous forests

Meta-analysis of avian and small-mammal response to fire severity and fire surrogate treatments in U.S. fire-prone forests

Long term thinning and logging in Australian cypress pine forest: Changes in habitat attributes and response of fauna

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