Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfires

1. Although niche theory predicts that disturbance should favour generalist species, the commu- nity-level implications of this pattern have been sparsely analysed. Here, we test the hypothesis that disturbance favours generalist species within communities, analysing effects of wildfires in bird comm...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Clavero, Miguel, Brotons, Lluís, Herrando, Sergi
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/46168
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/46168
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Conservation value
Mediterranean landscapes
Niche breadth
Niche position
rarity
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spelling Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfiresClavero, MiguelBrotons, LluísHerrando, SergiConservation valueMediterranean landscapesNiche breadthNiche positionrarity1. Although niche theory predicts that disturbance should favour generalist species, the commu- nity-level implications of this pattern have been sparsely analysed. Here, we test the hypothesis that disturbance favours generalist species within communities, analysing effects of wildfires in bird communities in a Mediterranean climate area as a case study. 2. We use bird occurrence data in more than 500 1 • 1 km squares forming a gradient running from forest to completely burnt areas. The level of specialization of bird communities was estimated by means of three complementary species specialization indices, calculated for different landscape gradients and averaged at the community level (i.e. 1 • 1 km squares), and mean species rarity. 3. We also calculated mean habitat preferences along landscape gradients, as well as an index of conservation value and total species richness. 4. Different estimators of bird community specialization varied in contrasting fashion along the wildfire disturbance gradient, and thus we conclude that it is not justified to expect unique commu- nity responses to the sharp variations in habitat characteristics brought by wildfire disturbances. 5. Burnt areas tended to have rarer and urban-avoider bird species, whereas unburnt forests tended to have larger proportions of forest specialist species. 6. The mean conservation value of communities clearly increased towards the burnt extreme of the wildfire disturbance gradient, while this had a negligible effect on species richness. 7. Wildfires seem to play an important role for the maintenance of open-habitat, urban-avoider bird populations in Mediterranean landscapes and also to benefit a set of bird species of unfavour- able European conservation status. 8. In this context, it cannot be unambiguously concluded that fire disturbance, even in a context in which fires are greatly favoured by human-related activities, leads to more functionally simplified communities dominated by generalist species.Peer reviewedBritish Ecological Society201220122011info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501http://hdl.handle.net/10261/46168reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Ingléshttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01748.x/pdfinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/461682026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfires
title Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfires
spellingShingle Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfires
Clavero, Miguel
Conservation value
Mediterranean landscapes
Niche breadth
Niche position
rarity
title_short Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfires
title_full Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfires
title_fullStr Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfires
title_full_unstemmed Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfires
title_sort Bird community specialization, bird conservation and disturbance: the role of wildfires
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Clavero, Miguel
Brotons, Lluís
Herrando, Sergi
author Clavero, Miguel
author_facet Clavero, Miguel
Brotons, Lluís
Herrando, Sergi
author_role author
author2 Brotons, Lluís
Herrando, Sergi
author2_role author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Conservation value
Mediterranean landscapes
Niche breadth
Niche position
rarity
topic Conservation value
Mediterranean landscapes
Niche breadth
Niche position
rarity
description 1. Although niche theory predicts that disturbance should favour generalist species, the commu- nity-level implications of this pattern have been sparsely analysed. Here, we test the hypothesis that disturbance favours generalist species within communities, analysing effects of wildfires in bird communities in a Mediterranean climate area as a case study. 2. We use bird occurrence data in more than 500 1 • 1 km squares forming a gradient running from forest to completely burnt areas. The level of specialization of bird communities was estimated by means of three complementary species specialization indices, calculated for different landscape gradients and averaged at the community level (i.e. 1 • 1 km squares), and mean species rarity. 3. We also calculated mean habitat preferences along landscape gradients, as well as an index of conservation value and total species richness. 4. Different estimators of bird community specialization varied in contrasting fashion along the wildfire disturbance gradient, and thus we conclude that it is not justified to expect unique commu- nity responses to the sharp variations in habitat characteristics brought by wildfire disturbances. 5. Burnt areas tended to have rarer and urban-avoider bird species, whereas unburnt forests tended to have larger proportions of forest specialist species. 6. The mean conservation value of communities clearly increased towards the burnt extreme of the wildfire disturbance gradient, while this had a negligible effect on species richness. 7. Wildfires seem to play an important role for the maintenance of open-habitat, urban-avoider bird populations in Mediterranean landscapes and also to benefit a set of bird species of unfavour- able European conservation status. 8. In this context, it cannot be unambiguously concluded that fire disturbance, even in a context in which fires are greatly favoured by human-related activities, leads to more functionally simplified communities dominated by generalist species.
publishDate 2011
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2011
2012
2012
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/46168
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/46168
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01748.x/pdf
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv British Ecological Society
publisher.none.fl_str_mv British Ecological Society
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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