Diversity and structure of bird communities in contrasting forests of the Hengduan Mountains, China
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Diversity and structure of bird communities in contrasting forests of the Hengduan Mountains, China Taxing Zhang1,2 • Xue Chen1,2 • Yongjie Wu1,2 • Jianghong Ran1,2 Received: 9 September 2019 / Revised: 22 August 2020 / Accepted: 3 September 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Rapid economic development has led to high rates of deforestation and widespread alteration of land cover in many regions in China, where many primary forests have been replaced by secondary and plantation forests. Therefore, we aimed to determine differences in bird community diversity and structure between three forest types. We assessed differences in species richness, phylogenetic and functional diversity and community structure of bird communities in primary, secondary and plantation forests. Data was collected over four meteorological seasons from bird communities in a nature reserve in the Hengduan Mountains, China. We found that functional and phylogenetic diversity in secondary forest were significantly greater than in primary forest, while species richness was not significantly different. Thus, simple metrics (i.e. species richness) may not be sufficient to assess forest conservation value. We suggest that it is necessary to use varied diversity metrics that incorporate species’ similarities and differences. It also appears that secondary forests play an important role in the maintenance of studied bird biodiversity. The results of community structure analyses show that the habitat filter was strongest in the primary forest, leading to primary forest species being lighter in weight, shorter in body length, and with longer tarsometatarsus. These species were specialized and forest-dependent, reflecting the value of primary forests as an irreplaceable habitat type for several species after nearby forests are degraded. Keywords Community ecology Forest type Habitat filter Conservation value Assembly rules
Communicated by Karen E. Hodges. Taxing Zhang and Xue Chen are joint first authors. This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Forest and plantation biodiversity. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-02002047-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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Biodiversity and Conservation
Introduction In the past 40 years, China has been undergoing a period of rapid economic development. This has inevitably led to deforestation and widespread alteration of land-cover in many areas of the country. Two processes to restore tree cover can be adopted for areas covered by degraded primary forests: natural succession (Brown and Lugo 1990; Chazdon 2014), leading to the development of secondary forests; and planting of one or more indigenous or exotic tree species (Brockerhoff et al. 2008; Felton et al. 2008), leading to the development of plantation forests. Both processes significantly change the
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