Increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps leads to reorganization of Central European bird communities
Natural and anthropogenic forest disturbances have profound impacts on biodiversity and habitats. Due to climate change and land-use legacies, natural disturbances in Central European forests – such as windthrow and insect outbreaks – have increased in recent decades. How those changes affect biodiv...
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Elsevier
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Basic and Applied Ecology |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179125000131 |
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| author | Anne Graser Claudia Frank Friederike Kunz Andreas Schuldt Cornelius Senf Christoph Sudfeldt Sven Trautmann Johannes Kamp |
| author_facet | Anne Graser Claudia Frank Friederike Kunz Andreas Schuldt Cornelius Senf Christoph Sudfeldt Sven Trautmann Johannes Kamp |
| author_sort | Anne Graser |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Natural and anthropogenic forest disturbances have profound impacts on biodiversity and habitats. Due to climate change and land-use legacies, natural disturbances in Central European forests – such as windthrow and insect outbreaks – have increased in recent decades. How those changes affect biodiversity has, however, rarely been quantified over larger spatial and longer temporal scales, mostly because concurrent datasets on biodiversity trends and forest disturbances are rare. Here, we investigate the effect of canopy gaps resulting from both natural and anthropogenic forest disturbance on bird species. We harnessed a unique dataset from a nation-wide bird monitoring scheme containing richness and abundance data from 927 plots monitored annually from 2005 to 2019 across all of Germany (153,014 observations). We related bird richness and abundance to disturbance (measured as the disturbance fraction, i.e. canopy gap area in relation to the total forest area per monitoring plot) derived from a 30 m-resolution forest disturbance layer based on Landsat satellite data. This allowed us to assess effects of young canopy gaps (disturbance <5 years ago) and older canopy gaps (disturbance 5–10 years ago) on population trends of single species, combined trends across functional groups and bird diversity. Responses to disturbance were largely species- and trait-specific, with contrasting effects of different canopy gap age not necessarily accompanied by a change in overall bird diversity. Abundance trends of forest birds as well as short-distant migrants were negatively affected by young canopy gaps. Older canopy gaps led to more positive trends in shrub-nesting birds and short-distant migrants. We conclude that the recent increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps across Central Europe has led to community reorganization, including species-specific changes in abundances. These changes might have important implications for priority-setting in species conservation. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-61c49941f6524c36b2a6c5d97e6acc8e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1439-1791 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Basic and Applied Ecology |
| spelling | doaj-art-61c49941f6524c36b2a6c5d97e6acc8e2025-02-07T04:47:17ZengElsevierBasic and Applied Ecology1439-17912025-03-01838897Increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps leads to reorganization of Central European bird communitiesAnne Graser0Claudia Frank1Friederike Kunz2Andreas Schuldt3Cornelius Senf4Christoph Sudfeldt5Sven Trautmann6Johannes Kamp7Department of Conservation Biology, University of Göttingen, Bürgerstr. 50, 37073 Göttingen, Germany; Corresponding author.Department of Conservation Biology, University of Göttingen, Bürgerstr. 50, 37073 Göttingen, Germany; Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA), An den Speichern 2, 48157 Münster, GermanyDachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA), An den Speichern 2, 48157 Münster, GermanyDepartment of Forest Nature Conservation, University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 3, 37077 Göttingen, GermanyTechnical University of Munich, School of Life Sciences, Earth Observation for Ecosystem Management, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354 Freising, GermanyDachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA), An den Speichern 2, 48157 Münster, GermanyDachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA), An den Speichern 2, 48157 Münster, GermanyDepartment of Conservation Biology, University of Göttingen, Bürgerstr. 50, 37073 Göttingen, Germany; Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten (DDA), An den Speichern 2, 48157 Münster, GermanyNatural and anthropogenic forest disturbances have profound impacts on biodiversity and habitats. Due to climate change and land-use legacies, natural disturbances in Central European forests – such as windthrow and insect outbreaks – have increased in recent decades. How those changes affect biodiversity has, however, rarely been quantified over larger spatial and longer temporal scales, mostly because concurrent datasets on biodiversity trends and forest disturbances are rare. Here, we investigate the effect of canopy gaps resulting from both natural and anthropogenic forest disturbance on bird species. We harnessed a unique dataset from a nation-wide bird monitoring scheme containing richness and abundance data from 927 plots monitored annually from 2005 to 2019 across all of Germany (153,014 observations). We related bird richness and abundance to disturbance (measured as the disturbance fraction, i.e. canopy gap area in relation to the total forest area per monitoring plot) derived from a 30 m-resolution forest disturbance layer based on Landsat satellite data. This allowed us to assess effects of young canopy gaps (disturbance <5 years ago) and older canopy gaps (disturbance 5–10 years ago) on population trends of single species, combined trends across functional groups and bird diversity. Responses to disturbance were largely species- and trait-specific, with contrasting effects of different canopy gap age not necessarily accompanied by a change in overall bird diversity. Abundance trends of forest birds as well as short-distant migrants were negatively affected by young canopy gaps. Older canopy gaps led to more positive trends in shrub-nesting birds and short-distant migrants. We conclude that the recent increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps across Central Europe has led to community reorganization, including species-specific changes in abundances. These changes might have important implications for priority-setting in species conservation.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179125000131Biodiversity monitoringBreeding birdsCanopy gapsForest disturbanceForest successionPopulation trends |
| spellingShingle | Anne Graser Claudia Frank Friederike Kunz Andreas Schuldt Cornelius Senf Christoph Sudfeldt Sven Trautmann Johannes Kamp Increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps leads to reorganization of Central European bird communities Basic and Applied Ecology Biodiversity monitoring Breeding birds Canopy gaps Forest disturbance Forest succession Population trends |
| title | Increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps leads to reorganization of Central European bird communities |
| title_full | Increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps leads to reorganization of Central European bird communities |
| title_fullStr | Increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps leads to reorganization of Central European bird communities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps leads to reorganization of Central European bird communities |
| title_short | Increase in disturbance-induced canopy gaps leads to reorganization of Central European bird communities |
| title_sort | increase in disturbance induced canopy gaps leads to reorganization of central european bird communities |
| topic | Biodiversity monitoring Breeding birds Canopy gaps Forest disturbance Forest succession Population trends |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179125000131 |
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