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Effects of an ENSO-related fire on birds of a lowland tropical forest in Sumatra |
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| Authors: | JM Adeney J R Ginsberg G J Russell & M F Kinnaird |
| Institution: | Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY, USA; Department of Mathematical Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA; Department of Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA |
| Abstract: | Comparisons of bird community composition in burned and unburned areas of a lowland tropical rainforest in Sumatra, Indonesia indicated the following during the first 5 years after burning: (1) original burn severity strongly affected bird community composition at both the genus and family levels; (2) bird community composition continued to change progressively away from immediate post-burn composition in medium and severely burned forest as well as adjacent unburned forest; and (3) the degree of impact was both taxon and guild specific, with understory insectivores most detrimentally affected. Although species richness may temporarily increase in burned areas, this study suggests that multiple wildfires will lead to a decline in diversity over a large scale as birds of open fields replace interior forest specialists. |
| Keywords: | avifauna community change conservation disturbance El Niño fire ecology guilds Indonesia insectivorous birds rainforest species loss Southeast Asia tropical forests understory birds wildlife |