Effects of bark beetle outbreaks on avian biodiversity in the British Columbia interior: Implications for critical habitat management

By K. Martin, Andrea R Norris, M. Drever. Journal of Ecosystems and Management, 2006

92 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The health of coniferous and mixed forests in western Canada is a critical forest management issue with implications for the forest industry, biodiversity conservation, and regional land use planning. The mixed forests of interior British Columbia have high biodiversity and species abundance, and support rich communities of over 185 wildlife vertebrate species, about 24% of which are cavity-nesters. These cavity-nesting birds and mammals live in complex, strongly structured wildlife communities (Nest Webs) that consist of an array of excavators and consumers of tree holes, many of which have strong preferences for large, old and decayed trees, especially deciduous trees, for nesting.Mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) and fire are the two major natural disturbance types structuring mature conifer stands in the interior of the province. The temporal changes in value and availability of dead and dying trees and their associated insect fauna are expected to result in stand-level variation in wildlife populations. Our research in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region showed that insect outbreaks can initially result in improved conditions for cavity-users and many other birds that feed on insects in dead and dying trees, but as the epidemic proceeds, these enhanced conditions deteriorate for many species as the supply of forest insects and old trees decline. The cumulative effects of habitat and environmental changes on the working landscape have the potential to negatively affect the stability of wildlife populations. This paper summarizes field observations regarding changes in forest stand conditions and avian biodiversity and evaluates the patterns of habitat change, beetle salvage, and wildlife responses as the mpb epidemic runs its course. It also discusses some of the issues that forest managers face when considering the maintenance of critical habitat for cavity-nesting species.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4894ae76ce5904b6f83f777b8d4ab288505c2603

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

1. R. Brandl
2. Jörg C Müller
3. R. Noss
4. A. Chalfoun
5. H. Bussler
6. S. Buskirk
7. C. Carroll

In Global and Planetary Change

1. R. Brandl
2. Jörg C Müller
3. R. Noss
4. S. Buskirk

In Insect Science

1. Jörg C Müller
2. R. Brandl
3. H. Bussler

Citations in the corpus

• Learning from a benign neglect strategy in a national park: Response of saproxylic beetles to dead wood accumulation (2010, background): “Up to now, however, discussion about the ‘‘engineering” role of bark beetles has focused mainly on responses of mammals and birds (Koprowski et al., 2005; Martin et al., 2006).”
• Ecological consequences of mountain pine beetle outbreaks for wildlife in western North American forests (2014, background): “2009a), little is known about wildlife responses to large-scale insect epidemics (Martin et al. 2006).”
• The importance of excavators in hole-nesting communities: availability and use of natural tree holes in old mixed forests of western Canada (2007, unknown): “This excavator group provides holes across a broad range of habitat types that accommodate an array of secondary hole-nesters from 10-g chickadees to 1-kg Barrow’s goldeneye and 2.5-kg fisher ( Martin et al. 2006 ).”