Effects of forest management on bird assemblages in the Bialowieza Forest, Poland

Abstract

We examined the effects of different intensities of forest management practices on bird communities in the Bialowieza Forest, eastern Poland. Stands managed for more than 100 years (cutting, planting, removal of dead wood) and stands that were partially protected in nature reserves (sporadic sanitary cutting, removal of dead wood until 2008) were compared with unmanaged stands in the Bialowieza National Park by surveying the bird community during three breeding seasons (2010-2012). Surveys were conducted within three forest habitats: spruce-pine (Pino-Quercetum), lime-hornbeam (Tilio-Carpinetum) and ash-alder (Fraxino-Alnetum). Results showed that habitat structure significantly affected the avian community. The basal area of live trees had a positive effect on abundance of birds, while the density of live trees had negative significant effect on bird abundance and species diversity. We also found significantly lower abundance of insectivorous birds and cavity-nesters in managed compared with unmanaged stands. Birds' assembly in the spruce-pine and ash-alder stands were most sensitive to management. These results show that management can be used to sustain bird communities, including species of conservation concern.

Silence is not golden: the hissing calls of tits affect the behaviour of a nest predator

“…In the Białowieża Forest (E Poland), there is a large diversity of cavity-nesting birds (Czeszczewik et al 2015) and also their nest predators. Species preying upon cavity nesters’ eggs or young include rodents (Yellow-necked Mouse Apodemus flavicollis , Forest Dormouse Dryomys nitedula , Fat Dormouse Glis glis , Red Squirrel Sciurus vulgaris ), mustelids (Pine Marten Martes martes , Weasel Mustela nivalis ), and the Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major (Walankiewicz 2002a; Wesołowski 2002; Czeszczewik et al 2008; Wesołowski and Rowiński 2012; Maziarz et al 2016).…”

A guild-based approach to assessing the influence of beech forest structure on bird communities

“…Consequently, invertebrates could proliferate because of more abundant suitable microhabitats, enhancing the food availability for woodpeckers, that create even more cavities, and other insectivores (Newton, 1994). Forestry often reduces the invertebrate biomass (Hill et al, 1990;Schowalter, 1990) generating negative cascade effects on insectivorous birds (Czeszczewik et al, 2014). Moreover, specialists are usually associated with older forest stands and greater wood biomass (Caprio et al, 2008;Donald et al, 1998).…”

Understory vegetation in planted pine forests governs bird community composition and diversity in the eastern Mediterranean region

“…The relationship between bird diversity and the environmental attributes of managed coniferous forests was, and still is, the subject of many studies in Europe (Patterson et al 1995;Paillet et al 2010;Rosenvald et al 2011;Czeszczewik et al 2015). Forest structure is an important factor in birds' habitat choice (Sweeney et al 2011).…”

“…The percentages were calculated independently for each life form, and therefore, the total cover percentage could reach more than 100% (Schiller et al 1997; Ellis and Betts 2011). The following parameters were measured for pine trees: average percentage canopy cover, tree top height, tree diameter at breast height and tree density (Schiller et al 1997;Czeszczewik et al 2015). The vegetation survey was carried-out in spring 2017 in all plots.…”