Long-term monitoring reveals an avian species credit in secondary forest patches of Costa Rica.

ABSTRACT: Degraded and secondary forests comprise approximately 50% of remaining tropical forest. Bird community characteristics and population trends in secondary forests are infrequently studied, but secondary forest may serve as a "safety net" for tropical biodiversity. Less understood is the occurrence of time-delayed, community-level dynamics such as an extinction debt of specialist species or a species credit resulting from the recolonization of forest patches by extirpated species. We sought to elucidate patterns and magnitudes of temporal change in avian communities in secondary forest patches in Southern Costa Rica biannually over a 10 year period during the late breeding season and mid-winter. We classified birds caught in mist nets or recorded in point counts by residency status, and furt

SUBMITTER: Latta SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5494173 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature