Active restoration accelerates recovery of tropical forest bird assemblages over two decades

Choosing effective methods to restore habitat for the diverse faunal assemblages of tropical forests is hampered by lack of long-term data comparing multiple restoration treatments. We conducted area counts of bird assemblages over 12 years (~5-17 years since restoration) in a blocked experiment with two active planted treatments (tree plantations and applied nucleation) and a passive restoration treatment (natural regeneration) replicated at 11 sites in Costa Rica. We also surveyed six pastures and five remnant forest sites to assess recovery of avian species richness, composition, forest specialists, and range-restricted species in restoration plots relative to degraded and reference systems. Restoration treatments showed increased resemblance of avian assemblages to remnant forest over time. Applied nucleation proved equally effective as plantation, despite a reduced planted area, whereas natural regeneration recovered more slowly. Assemblage-level trends in avian species richness an..., , , # Data Documentation for: Active restoration accelerates recovery of tropical forest bird assemblages over two decades

## General Information

Name of data set: Islas Bird Surveys 2010-2021

Data files:

(1) sites.csv

(2) bird_surveys_2010_2021.csv

Date the data set was last modified: February 6, 2023

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

How to cite data: Joyce, Francis H. et al. (2024). Active restoration accelerates recovery of tropical forest bird assemblages over two decades [Dataset]. Dryad. [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k6djh9wfd](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.k6djh9wfd).

Primary article: Joyce, F. H., Rosales, J. A., Holl, K. D., Zahawi, R. A., Bui, A., & Reid, J. L. (2024). Active restoration accelerates recovery of tropical forest bird communities over two decades. Biological Conservation.

## Data Collection

Methodology for data collection:

This dataset contains surveys of bird communities from 2010 to 2021 at 11 restoration sites, 5 mature remnant forests, an...