Avian relationships with bark beetle outbreaks and underlying mechanisms in lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests of Colorado
Item Metadata
Dublin Core
Title
Avian relationships with bark beetle outbreaks and underlying mechanisms in lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests of Colorado
Description
Bark beetle (Dendroctonus spp.) outbreaks have historically shaped the structure and function of western North American conifer forests by contributing to heterogeneous conditions needed to support various wildlife species. Previous studies of beetle impacts have primarily focused on pine-dominated systems within 1–6 years of outbreak, limiting our knowledge for informing wildlife habitat management to a relatively short timeframe and narrow range of forest types. Increases in extent and severity of outbreaks since 1900, caused in part by anthropogenic climate warming and forest management, elevates the value of understanding how bark beetle outbreaks impact wildlife populations. Our objectives were (1) to evaluate species and community relationships with outbreak severity (percent conifer mortality) and years since outbreak, (2) to evaluate potential environmental mechanisms underlying these relationships, and (3) to compare patterns across the two forest types for improved general knowledge. We studied avian species occupancy and richness in relation to outbreak conditions using two 18-year chronosequence datasets collected in 2013 and 2014 representing lodgepole forests (predominantly Pinus contorta) and spruce-fir forests (co-dominated by Picea engelmannii and Abies lasiocarpa) throughout Colorado. We employed hierarchical models to account for imperfect detection and spatial dependencies when analyzing population and community patterns apparent in data representing 73 bird species. We found various relationships and potential underlying mechanisms largely but not entirely consistent with a priori hypotheses based on species life histories and previous study. As expected, understory-associated birds related positively with outbreak conditions apparently following understory vegetative release. Consistent with our hypotheses, aerial insectivores and snag-associated species also related positively with outbreak conditions, although our data highlighted understory vegetation more so than canopy structure or snags as potential mechanistic factors. Contrary to our overall hypothesis for canopy-associated species, we did not observe many negative outbreak relationships for this group. Overall, bird species richness increased with years since outbreak, with clear increases in lodgepole forest. In contrast, the data from spruce-fir forest provided statistical support for fewer patterns (i.e., fewer with 90% credible intervals excluding zero), and they supported primarily negative relationships with outbreak severity. Our results suggest potential differences in ecological significance of bark beetle outbreaks in different forest types. At least in lodgepole forest, however, observed patterns were apparently consistent with the purported historical value of bark beetle outbreaks for promoting biodiversity (represented here by birds) despite recent increases in extent and severity.
Bibliographic Citation
Latif, Q. S., J. S. Ivan, A. E. Seglund, D. L. Pavlacky, and R. L. Truex. 2020. Avian relationships with bark beetle outbreaks and underlying mechanisms in lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests of Colorado. Forest Ecology and Management 464:118043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118043
Creator
Latif, Quresh S.
Ivan, Jacob S.
Seglund, Amy E.
Pavlacky, David L.
Truex, Richard L.
Subject
Bark beetle
Dendroctonus spp.
Western North American conifer forests
Lodgepole pine forests
Spruce-fir forests
Colorado
Extent
23 pages
Date Created
2020-05
Type
Article
Format
application/pdf
Language
English
Is Part Of
Forest Ecology and Management
Alternative Title
Corrigendum to “Avian relationships with bark beetle outbreaks and underlying mechanisms in lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests of Colorado”
Collection
Citation
Latif, Quresh S. et al., “Avian relationships with bark beetle outbreaks and underlying mechanisms in lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests of Colorado,” CPW Digital Collections, accessed April 26, 2024, https://cpw.cvlcollections.org/items/show/235.