Data from: Fire and mechanical forest management treatments support different portions of the bird community in fire-suppressed forests

Silvicultural treatments, fire, and insect outbreaks are the primary
disturbance events currently affecting forests in the Sierra Nevada
Mountains of California, a region where plants and wildlife are highly
adapted to a frequent-fire disturbance regime that has been suppressed for
decades. Although the effects of both fire and silviculture on wildlife
have been studied by many, there are few studies that directly compare
their long-term effects on wildlife communities. We conducted avian point
counts from 2010 to 2019 at 1987 in situ field survey locations across
eight national forests and collected fire and silvicultural treatment data
from 1987 to 2016, resulting in a 20-year post-disturbance chronosequence.
We evaluated two categories of fire severity in comparison to
silvicultural management (largely pre-commercial and commercial thinning
treatments) as well as undisturbed locations to model their influences on
abundances of 71 breeding bird species. More species (48% of the
community) reached peak abundance at moderate-high-severity-fire locations
than at low-severity fire (8%), silvicultural management (16%), or
undisturbed (13%) locations. Total community abundance was highest in
undisturbed dense forests as well as in the first few years after
silvicultural management and lowest in the first few years after
moderate-high-severity fire, then abundance in all types of disturbed
habitats was similar by 10 years after disturbance. Even though the total
community abundance was relatively low in moderate-high-severity-fire
habitats, species diversity was the highest. Moderate-high-severity fire
supported a unique portion of the avian community, while low-severity fire
and silvicultural management were relatively similar. We conclude that a
significant portion of the bird community in the Sierra Nevada region is
dependent on moderate-high-severity fire and thus recommend that a
prescribed and managed wildfire program that incorporates a variety of
fire effects will best maintain biodiversity in this region.
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/12/2/150/htm