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Postfire forest management and Mediterranean birds: the importance of the logging remnants

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Abstract

Fire is a crucial element needed to understand the biodiversity patterns of forest landscapes in most Mediterranean countries. However, little is known about the quantitative responses of bird communities to postfire forest management in this region, in which the logging of burnt trees is a common practice. Several studies have already described the negative effects of felling burnt trees on birds but none has focussed on the remaining wood remnants. We investigated this question in a large burnt area located in north-east Iberian Peninsula. The amount of logging remnants left on the ground had positive linear and negative quadratic relationships with the indices of bird abundance and bird richness. The results obtained at a species level were similar, since 36% of the most abundant species revealed the same type of relations with logging remnants, whereas none showed an opposite pattern. Thus, birds in general seem to be positively influenced by the amount of wood remnants left on the ground to a certain point, from which the relation reverses. The results of this study indicate that a moderate amount of wood remnants left on the ground may be positive for the overall bird community. We suggest that management plays a role in the recovery of the bird community after fire and, therefore, biodiversity criteria should be incorporated in the guidelines driving postfire actions.

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Acknowledgments

This study has been funded by the Department of Natural Parks of Diputació de Barcelona. This work is has been also supported by the project CGL2005-2000031/BOS granted by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. S.H. belongs to the Grup de Recerca Consolidat 2005SGR00602. L.B. benefited from a Ramon y Cajal contract from the Spanish government. We especially wish to acknowledge the great support from Daniel Guinart, biologist at the Sant Llorenç del Munt Natural Park. We also wish to thank Javier Quesada, Joan Estrada, Oriol Baltà, Raül Aymí and four anonymous referees for their constructive comments on previous drafts of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Catalan Ornithological Institute, Museu de Ciències Naturals de la Ciutadella, 08003, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Sergi Herrando, Lluís Brotons, Santi Guallar & Sergi Sales

  2. Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya, Àrea de Biodiversitat, Carretera de Sant Llorenç km 2, 25280, Solsona, Catalonia, Spain

    Lluís Brotons

  3. Departament de Ciències Ambientals, Universitat de Girona, Campus de Montilivi, 17071, Girona, Catalonia, Spain

    Pere Pons

  4. Catalan Ornithological Institute, Technical Office, Girona 168, entresol 5a, 08037, Barcelona, Spain

    Sergi Herrando

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  1. Sergi Herrando
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Correspondence to Sergi Herrando.

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Herrando, S., Brotons, L., Guallar, S. et al. Postfire forest management and Mediterranean birds: the importance of the logging remnants. Biodivers Conserv 18, 2153–2164 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9579-5

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