Edge effect of low-traffic forest roads on bird communities in secondary production forests in central Europe

0346284 - ÚBO 2011 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Šálek, M. - Svobodová, Jana - Zasadil, P.
Edge effect of low-traffic forest roads on bird communities in secondary production forests in central Europe.
Landscape Ecology. Roč. 25, č. 7 (2010), s. 1113-1124. ISSN 0921-2973. E-ISSN 1572-9761
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60930519
Keywords : Biodiversity * Bird assemblages * Czech Republic * Edge effect * Habitat fragmentation * Landscape structure * Point count method
Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour
Impact factor: 3.200, year: 2010

Worldwide forests fragmentation has lead to a massive increase of habitat edges, creating both negative and positive impacts on birds. While busy highways dissecting forested areas create edges which are known to reduce bird densities due to the disturbing effect of noise, the impacts of logging forest roads with low traffic volumes have rarely been studied. In this study, we compared species richness and similarity of canopy, cavity and shrub guilds of birds along low-traffic forest roads, in forest interior, and at forest edges in secondary forests in central Europe, where the forests have passed through extensive changes toward uniformly compact growths dominated by production conifers. Although we found tree diversity as positively affecting bird richness across all habitats, the bird richness along forest roads was higher than in forest interior but lower than along forest edges.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0187353