Abstract

The oak-dominated woodlands and forests of northern Europe have experienced dramatic declines due to agriculture, urbanization, and conifer-dominated production forestry. These losses have had a substantial negative impact on biodiversity due to the large number of forest species which depend on oak and the environments oak-dominated forests provide. Production oak stands may serve as a means of supplementing or complementing the habitat provided by the limited remaining natural oak remnants in this region. Here we evaluate the extent to which oak plantations in temperate southern Sweden provide habitat and resources for bird communities, by surveying and contrasting the bird species composition and diversity found in mature and young production oak stands (5 and 8 replicates respectively) and protected oak-dominated remnant forests (5 replicates). The mature production stands possessed a bird community partially overlapping in bird species composition, and comparable in species richness (34 species) to that found within protected oak forests (39 species). Furthermore, the production oak forests surveyed hosted threatened or near threatened bird species, including black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius), goldcrest (Regulus regulus), starling (Sturnus vulgaris), and yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella). Though production oak forests cannot replace the habitat provided by protected oak forests, these stands do appear to provide conditions consistent with the habitat and resource requirements of a diverse cross-section of bird species in this region, including species of substantial conservation concern. Production oak forests thus have the capacity to make a positive contribution to biodiversity conservation, as well as providing a diverse range of goods and services to society. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Bird assemblage; Forest management; Feeding guild; Nesting guild; Migrant; Silviculture

Published in

Forest Ecology and Management
2016, Volume: 365, pages: 51-60
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Felton, Adam

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hedwall, Per-Ola

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Lindbladh, Matts

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Felton, Annika

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Holmström, Emma

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Wallin, Ida

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Löf, Magnus

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Brunet, Jörg

  • Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

SLU Future Forests


Sustainable Development Goals

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable


UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science
Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2016.01.030

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/79586