1. Can exotic tree plantations preserve the bird community of an endangered native forest in the Argentine Pampas?
- Author
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Lacoretz, Mariela V., Depalma, Daniela M., Torrella, Sebastian A., Zilli, Cecilia, Ferretti, Valentina, and Fernandez, Gustavo J.
- Subjects
Tree farms -- Environmental aspects ,Birds -- Environmental aspects ,Pampas -- Environmental aspects ,Earth sciences - Abstract
Worldwide, the areas covered by native forests are declining while those of tree plantations are increasing. This has raised the question of whether tree plantations are able to preserve native forest species. In Argentina, the main native forests of the Pampas region, called talares, are endangered and their disappearance is imminent. Although exotic tree plantations are increasing in this region, their role in maintaining native bird diversity has not been studied in Argentine Pampas. We compared the bird community attributes and vegetation structure of talares native forests with those of tree plantations. Compared with talares native forests, plantations exhibited markedly lower bird richness (up to 80% lower), and all forest-dependent bird species were absent in plantations. Talares and plantations differed also in some aspects of vegetation structure, which usually are key determinants of bird abundance. Given the extreme importance of talares for forest birds, this bird community will be deeply affected if talares native forests continue to decline, as nearby plantations do not offer suitable habitat. To maintain the bird diversity of talares, and probably the diversity of other unstudied taxa related to them, we recommend management actions that should be applied urgently in these endangered forests of the Argentine Pampas. Key words: biodiversity conservation, bird diversity, Celtis tala, management actions, talares. Partout dans le monde, la superficie des forets naturelles va en diminuant tandis que celle des plantations va en augmentant. Cela a souleve la question a savoir si les plantations sont en mesure de preserver les especes associees a la foret naturelle. En Argentine, les principales forets naturelles de la region des Pampas, appelees talares, sont menacees et leur disparition est imminente. Bien que la plantation d'arbres exotiques augmente dans cette region, leur role dans le maintien de la diversite aviaire naturelle n'a pas ete etudie dans les Pampas argentines. Nous avons compare les attributs des communautes aviaires et la structure de la vegetation de la foret naturelle de talares avec ceux des plantations. La richesse aviaire etait nettement plus faible dans les plantations que dans les talares, jusqu'a 80 % plus faible, et toutes les especes d'oiseaux qui dependent de la foret etaient absentes dans les plantations. Les talares differaient aussi des plantations par certains aspects de la structure de la vegetation qui sont habituellement des determinants cles de l'abondance des oiseaux. Considerant l'importance extreme des talares pour les oiseaux forestiers, cette communaute aviaire sera profondement affectee si elle continue a decliner, etant donne que les plantations situees a proximite ne constituent pas un habitat adequat. Afin de maintenir la diversite aviaire des talares, et probablement la diversite d'autres taxons relies aux talares mais qui n'ont pas ete etudies, nous recommandons que des mesures d'amenagement soient appliquees sans delai dans ces forets menacees des Pampas argentines. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : conservation de la biodiversite, diversite aviaire, Celtis tala, mesures d'amenagement, talares., Introduction A major part of the world's biodiversity depends on native forests to survive (Brockerhoff et al. 2013). While tree plantations are expanding globally (Payn et al. 2015), substantial areas [...]
- Published
- 2021
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