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Effects of fire regime on the bird community in an Amazonian savanna

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Abstract

Savanna ecosystems are maintained by fires with a fire-adapted biota, and savannas occur in Amazonia in patches surrounded by tropical forest. Different fire regimes can generate structurally diverse vegetation, and the composition of savanna bird assemblages is known to be closely related to vegetation structure. However, long-term approaches and interaction of fire with other environmental factors need to be explored for the better understanding of the effects of fire on birds. In an Amazonian landscape composed by savanna and forest, we investigated the effects of different fire regimes in a 12-ha area in three periods through 23 years. We also examined the effects of frequency and extent of fires, tree cover, and distance to forest on bird composition in twelve 3.7-ha savanna plots. Birds were surveyed with mist-nets and species were classified as to their habitat use by their frequency of registers in forest and savanna plots in visual/acoustical surveys. After 13 years without fire, many forest species colonized the area and some savanna species were lost. After one fire event in a plot that had not burned for 12 years, some savanna species returned. These results highlight the effects of fire regime on birds and indicate that many savanna bird species depend on the occurrence of regular fires.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Nobre brothers for support and dedication to the project, Mario Cohn-Haft for help in species identification and Paulo E.S. Massoca for the help with the production and analysis of maps. CDR aknowledge the Mulago Foundation for the supprt provided to Instituto Jurua. WEM received a productivity scholarship from CNPq.

Funding

We thank INPA for the support and CNPq for the scholarship for LAC’s MSc project. The long-term fire and avifauna data are financed by the productivity scholarships from CNPq and PPI-INPA to TMS and APL.

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Author notes

  1. Laís Araújo Coelho and Camila Duarte Ritter have contributed equally to this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, MC-5557, 1200, Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Laís Araújo Coelho

  2. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Avenida Efigênio Sales, 2239, Manaus, AM, 69060-001, Brazil

    Camila Duarte Ritter, Albertina Pimentel Lima, Renato Cintra, William E. Magnusson & Tânia Margarete Sanaiotti

  3. Instituto Juruá, Rua das Papoulas, 97, Aleixo, Manaus, AM, 69083-300, Brazil

    Camila Duarte Ritter

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  1. Laís Araújo Coelho
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  3. Albertina Pimentel Lima
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Contributions

LAC and TMS conceived the study; LAC, APL, RC, WEM and TMS collected data. LAC and CDR analyzed data and wrote the manuscript with contribution of all authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Laís Araújo Coelho or Camila Duarte Ritter.

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No ethical requirement was necessary. Birds captured in this study were marked with metal bands provided by CEMAVE-ICMBio (Authorization Number 1177/4, ICMBIO/SNA) or coloured plastic bands.

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Communicated by Grzegorz Mikusinski.

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Coelho, L.A., Duarte Ritter, C., Lima, A.P. et al. Effects of fire regime on the bird community in an Amazonian savanna. Biodivers Conserv 32, 3893–3913 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02665-0

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