From unburnt to salvage logged: Quantifying bird responses to different levels of disturbance severity

Lindenmayer, David B.; McBurney, Lachlan; Blair, David; Wood, Jeff T.; Banks, Samuel

doi:10.1111/1365-2664.13137

Cited by 30 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Salvage logging operations are spatially limited in mountain ash forests and demand fit‐for‐purpose experiments (see Lindenmayer et al. ). Nevertheless, further work is required to quantify other interacting effects of logging and fire on biodiversity at the landscape level, especially as a past history of harvesting can elevate the risk of subsequent higher severity fires (Taylor et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We did not explore potential interacting landscape effects of fire and logging such as where areas subject to a major conflagration are subject to postfire salvage logging. Salvage logging operations are spatially limited in mountain ash forests and demand fit-for-purpose experiments (see Lindenmayer et al 2018c). Nevertheless, further work is required to quantify other interacting effects of logging and fire on biodiversity at the landscape level, especially as a past history of harvesting can elevate the risk of subsequent higher severity fires (Taylor et al 2014, Zylstra 2018, as also found in a range of forest types globally (Thompson et al 2007, Cochrane andLaurance 2008).…”

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatiotemporal effects of logging and fire on tall, wet temperate eucalypt forest birds

Lindenmayer

Blanchard

Blair

et al. 2019

Ecological Applications

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Forests globally are subject to disturbances such as logging and fire that create complex temporal variation in spatial patterns of forest cover and stand age. However, investigations that quantify temporal changes in biodiversity in response to multiple forms of disturbance in space and time are relatively uncommon. Over a 10-yr period, we investigated the response of bird species to spatiotemporal changes in forest cover associated with logging and wildfire in the mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests of southeastern Australia. Specifically, we examined how bird occurrence changed with shifts in the proportion of area burned or logged in a 4.5 km radius surrounding our 88 long-term field survey sites, each measuring 1 ha in size. Overall species richness was greatest in older forest patches, but declined as the amount of fire around each site increased. At the individual species level, 31 of the 37 bird species we modeled exhibited a negative response to the amount of fire in the surrounding landscape, while one species responded positively to fire. Only nine species exhibited signs of recovery in the 6 yr of surveys following the fire. Five species were more likely to be detected as the proportion of logged forest surrounding a site increased, suggesting a possible "concentration effect" with displaced birds moving into unlogged areas following harvesting of adjacent areas. We also identified relationships between the coefficients of life history attributes and spatiotemporal changes in forest cover and stand age. Large-bodied birds and migratory species were associated with landscapes subject to large amounts of fire in 2009. There were associations between old growth stands and small-bodied bird species and species that were not insectivores. Our study shows that birds in mountain ash forests are strongly associated with old growth stands and exhibit complex, timedependent, and species-specific responses to landscape disturbance. Despite logging and fire both being high-severity perturbations, no bird species exhibited similar responses to fire and logging in the landscape surrounding our sites. Thus, species responses to one kind of landscapescale disturbance are not readily predictable based on an understanding of the responses to another kind of (albeit superficially similar) disturbance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conservation Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal effects of logging and fire on tall, wet temperate eucalypt forest birds

Lindenmayer

Blanchard

Blair

et al. 2019

Ecological Applications

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“…Examples of ecological responses to factorial combinations of natural disturbance and logging. ( A) Additive increases in wind erosion (Whicker et al, ), (B) additive decreases in bird species richness 7 years after wildfire (Lindenmayer et al, ), (C) Synergistic decline in tree‐fern survival (Blair et al, ), D) antagonistic effect on microbial soil carbon (Kishchuk et al, ), (E) white‐spotted sawyer beetles ( Monochamus scutellatus ) only present after individual disturbances (Cobb et al, ), (F) Combined effect of wildfire and salvage logging on forest floor carbon showing up as a reduction in the speed of recovery (Kishchuk et al, ). Panels (A) and (B) show additive effects of wildfire and logging, while panels (C) to (F) show cases of interaction modifications.…”

Section: Salvage Logging and Interaction Modificationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, the concept of retention forestry was created, targeting the long-term retention of key structural elements and organisms to promote the "continuity in forest structure, composition, and complexity that promotes maintenance of biodiversity and ecological functions at different spatial scales" (Lindenmayer et al, 2012). Such an approach currently lacks a counterpart in disturbed forests (Lindenmayer, McBurney, Blair, Wood, & Banks, 2018), while it is precisely in such forests that biological legacies are crucial for regeneration (Franklin et al, 2000). Paradoxically, whereas green-tree retention aims to emulate natural disturbance dynamics (Lindenmayer et al, 2012), once a natural disturbance occurs, the most common response is salvage logging.…”

Section: Implications Of Nonlinear Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salvage logging in the world’s forests: Interactions between natural disturbance and logging need recognition

Leverkus

Lindenmayer

Thorn

et al. 2018

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Aim Large disturbances increasingly shape the world's forests. Concomitantly, increasing amounts of forest are subject to salvage logging. Understanding and managing the world's forests thus increasingly hinges upon understanding the combined effects of natural disturbance and logging disturbance, including interactions so far unnoticed. Here, we use recent advances in disturbance‐interaction theory to disentangle and describe the mechanisms through which natural disturbance (e.g., wildfire, insect outbreak or windstorm) can interact with anthropogenic disturbance (logging) to produce unanticipated effects. We also explore to what extent such interactions have been addressed in empirical research globally. Insights First, many ecological responses to salvage logging likely result from interaction modifications—i.e., from non‐additive effects– between natural disturbance and logging. However, based on a systematic review encompassing 209 relevant papers, we found that interaction modifications have been largely neglected. Second, salvage logging constitutes an interaction chain because natural disturbances increase the likelihood, intensity and extent of subsequent logging disturbance due to complex socio‐ecological interactions. Both interaction modifications and interaction chains can be driven by nonlinear responses to the severity of each disturbance. We show that, whereas many of the effects of salvage logging likely arise from the multiple kinds of disturbance interactions between natural disturbance and logging, they have mostly been overlooked in research to date. Conclusions Interactions between natural disturbance and logging imply that increasing disturbances will produce even more disturbance, and with unknown characteristics and consequences. Disentangling the pathways producing disturbance interactions is thus crucial to guide management and policy regarding naturally disturbed forests.

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“…Because salvage logging immediately follows the natural disturbance (i.e. up to 3 years), it acts as an additional disturbance (Lindenmayer, McBurney, Blair, Wood, & Banks, 2018; Morissette, Cobb, Brigham, & James, 2002), with possible negative effects on species richness, community recovery of various species groups (Thorn et al, 2018) and ecosystem services (Leverkus et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salvage logging changes the taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional successional trajectories of forest bird communities

Georgiev

Chao

Castro

et al. 2020

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Salvage logging following natural disturbances may alter the natural successional trajectories of biological communities by affecting the occurrences of species, functional groups and evolutionary lineages. However, few studies have examined whether dissimilarities between bird communities of salvaged and unsalvaged forests are more pronounced for rare species, functional groups and evolutionary lineages than for their more common counterparts. We compiled data on breeding bird assemblages from nine study areas in North America, Europe and Asia, covering a 17‐year period following wildfire or windstorm disturbances and subsequent salvage logging. We tested whether dissimilarities based on non‐shared species, functional groups and evolutionary lineages (a) decreased or increased over time and (b) the responses of rare, common and dominant species varied, by using a unified statistical framework based on Hill numbers and null models. We found that dissimilarities between bird communities caused by salvage logging persisted over time for rare, common and dominant species, evolutionary lineages and for rare functional groups. Dissimilarities of common and dominant functional groups increased 14 years post disturbance. Salvage logging led to significantly larger dissimilarities than expected by chance. Functional dissimilarities between salvaged and unsalvaged sites were lower compared to taxonomic and phylogenetic dissimilarities. In general, dissimilarities were highest for rare, followed by common and dominant species. Synthesis and applications. Our research demonstrates that salvage logging did not decrease dissimilarities of bird communities over time and taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic dissimilarities persisted for over a decade. We recommend resource managers and decision makers to reserve portions of disturbed forest to enable unmanaged post‐disturbance succession of bird communities, particularly to conserve rare species found in unsalvaged disturbed forests.

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From unburnt to salvage logged: Quantifying bird responses to different levels of disturbance severity

Cited by 30 publications

References 55 publications

Spatiotemporal effects of logging and fire on tall, wet temperate eucalypt forest birds

Spatiotemporal effects of logging and fire on tall, wet temperate eucalypt forest birds

Salvage logging in the world’s forests: Interactions between natural disturbance and logging need recognition

Salvage logging changes the taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional successional trajectories of forest bird communities

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