Dataset 459

Birds from the Bavarian Forest logged

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Realm: Terrestrial
Climate: Temperate
Biome: Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
Central latitude: 49.073060
Central longitude: 13.321120
Duration: 3 years, from 2010 to 2014

343 records

44 distinct species

Across the time series Anthus trivialis is the most frequently occurring species

Methods

This study was conducted in the Bavarian Forest National Park in south-eastern Germany (49°070 N, 13°310 E), which is dominated by subalpine forests of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst). On January 16, 2007, an area of c. 1000 ha of mature Norway spruce forests was felled by the windstorm ‘Kyrill’. From those 1000 ha, four larger patches were selected totalling about 200 ha to remain unlogged; on the remaining 800 ha, storm-felled trees were removed by experimental post-disturbance logging up to August 2007. Afterwards, 44 plots, 22 in logged areas and 22 in unlogged areas. During logging operations, branches were cut off the trunk and left on the ground, and the main trunk was removed. Following this, dead wood resources were reduced from c. 300 m³/ha to c. 50 m³/ha in all 22 logged areas (details in Thorn et al. 2014, 2015). This dataset is part of a multi-taxon study, where 8 different taxonomic groups were monitored across plots that had the 2 different regimes (logged VS unlogged). It consists of bird data from logged plots. Bird censuses were performed five times per year from mid-March to mid-June in 2010, 2012 and 2014. This schedule ensures detection of early resident breeding birds as well as late-arriving long-distance migrants (Südbeck et al., 2005). We used transect-based point-stop counts with a fixed radius of 50 m around the centroid of each plot, resulting in 900 (60 plots * five visits per year * three survey years) individual point-stop counts (Hutto et al., 1986, Moning and Müller, 2008). On each plot, all bird individuals seen and/or heard during a time period of 5 min were recorded. Surveys were only conducted on days without rain, with low wind speed, and clear or slightly overcast sky (Bibby et al., 2000).

Citation(s)

Thorn, S., Bässler, C., Bernhardt-Römermann, M., Cadotte, M., Heibl, C., Schäfer, H., Seibold, S. & Müller, J. (2016) Changes in the dominant assembly mechanism drive species loss caused by declining resources. Ecology Letters, 19, 163–170.
Thorn, S., Bässler, C., Gottschalk, T., Hothorn, T., Bussler, H., Raffa, K. & Müller, J. (2014) New insights into the consequences of post-windthrow salvage logging revealed by functional structure of saproxylic beetles assemblages. PLoS ONE, 9, e101757.
Thorn, S., Werner, S. A., Wohlfahrt, J., Bässler, C., Seibold, S., Quillfeldt, P. & Müller, J. (2016) Response of bird assemblages to windstorm and salvage logging - Insights from analyses of functional guild and indicator species. Ecological Indicators, 65, 142–148.