Early responses of birds to clearfelling and its alternatives in lowland wet eucalypt forest in Tasmania, Australia

From clearfell coupe to old-growth forest: Succession of bird assemblages in Tasmanian lowland wet eucalypt forests

“…This is consistent with the low numbers of birds found previously in young eucalypt regrowth following clearfelling (Loyn, 1980(Loyn, , 1985aSmith, 1984;Kavanagh et al, 1985;Recher et al, 1985Recher et al, , 1991Dickinson et al, 1986;Taylor et al, 1997;Wardell-Johnson and Williams, 2000;Williams et al, 2001;Kavanagh and Stanton, 2003; but see Taylor and Haseler, 1995), including in Tasmanian lowland wet eucalypt forests (Pattemore, 1980;Hingston, 2000;Lefort and Grove, 2009). Another reason for the unique bird assemblages in 6-8-year-old regrowth was the restriction of superb fairy-wrens to this age-class.…”

“…In spite of this, our findings of fewer birds in young regrowth than in old-growth are consistent with all previous studies that investigated bird Table 2 The number of surveys, out of a total of 17, in which each species was observed within 25 m of survey-points at each site. assemblages in this forest type (Pattemore, 1980;Hingston, 2000;Lefort and Grove, 2009). Moreover, the species-richness and assemblage-composition were fairly consistent within treatments for older forests, and there were significant differences in assemblage-composition among the four seral stages.…”

“…Point-surveys were chosen for this study in preference to areasearches, because the latter were impractical in several of the sites with dense undergrowth (see also Wardell-Johnson and Williams, 2000), and because point-surveys have previously been used successfully locally (Hingston, 2000;Lefort and Grove, 2009). Point-surveys of 5 min each were carried out at each corner of a 50 m  50 m square at the centre of each 250 m  250 m plot.…”

“…It is not known how long it takes for bird assemblages to return to the compositions present in old-growth eucalypt forests (Hingston, 2000). We also do not know whether bird assemblages after clearfelling change directly into those that are characteristic of old-growth eucalypt forests as the regrowth ages, or whether there are assemblages uniquely characteristic of older regrowth (Lefort and Grove, 2009).…”

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

“…Wardell-Johnson and Williams, 2000;Williams et al, 2001;Lefort and Grove, 2009;Hingston et al, 2014) and selective logging of subtropical forests (e.g. Craig, 2002;Eyre, 2006;Lemckert, 2011;Webala et al, 2011).…”