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Forest degradation drives widespread avian habitat and population declines.


ABSTRACT: In many regions of the world, forest management has reduced old forest and simplified forest structure and composition. We hypothesized that such forest degradation has resulted in long-term habitat loss for forest-associated bird species of eastern Canada (130,017 km2) which, in turn, has caused bird-population declines. Despite little change in overall forest cover, we found substantial reductions in old forest as a result of frequent clear-cutting and a broad-scale transformation to intensified forestry. Back-cast species distribution models revealed that breeding habitat loss occurred for 66% of the 54 most common species from 1985 to 2020 and was strongly associated with reduction in old age classes. Using a long-term, independent dataset, we found that habitat amount predicted population size for 94% of species, and habitat loss was associated with population declines for old-forest species. Forest degradation may therefore be a primary cause of biodiversity decline in managed forest landscapes.

SUBMITTER: Betts MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9177422 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Forest degradation drives widespread avian habitat and population declines.

Betts Matthew G MG   Yang Zhiqiang Z   Hadley Adam S AS   Smith Adam C AC   Rousseau Josée S JS   Northrup Joseph M JM   Nocera Joseph J JJ   Gorelick Noel N   Gerber Brian D BD  

Nature ecology & evolution 20220428 6


In many regions of the world, forest management has reduced old forest and simplified forest structure and composition. We hypothesized that such forest degradation has resulted in long-term habitat loss for forest-associated bird species of eastern Canada (130,017 km<sup>2</sup>) which, in turn, has caused bird-population declines. Despite little change in overall forest cover, we found substantial reductions in old forest as a result of frequent clear-cutting and a broad-scale transformation t  ...[more]

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