Data from: Spatio-temporal effects of logging and fire on tall, wet temperate eucalypt forest birds

Forests globally are subject to multiple disturbances such as logging and
fire that create complex temporal variation in spatial patterns of forest
cover and stand age. However, investigations that quantify temporal
changes in biodiversity in response to multiple forms of disturbance in
space and time are relatively uncommon. Over a 10-year period, we
investigated the response of bird species to spatio-temporal changes in
cover associated with logging and wildfire in the Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus
regnans) forests of south-eastern Australia. Specifically, we examined how
bird occurrence changed with shifts in the proportion of area burnt or
logged in a 4.5km radius surrounding each of 87 field survey sites.
Overall species richness was greatest in older forest patches. Bird
species richness declined as the amount of fire around each site
increased. At the individual species level, most species were more likely
to be found in old growth than younger forest. Twenty-five of 36 bird
species we modeled, exhibited a negative response to the amount of fire in
the surrounding landscape (while two species responded positively to
fire). Only nine species exhibited signs of post-fire recovery. Ten
species were more likely to be recorded as the proportion of logged forest
surrounding a site increased, suggesting a possible “concentration effect”
with displaced birds moving into unlogged areas following harvesting of
adjacent areas. In contrast to predictions from the disturbance-congruence
hypothesis, no bird species exhibited similar responses to fire and
logging in the landscape surrounding our sites. Similarly, no bird life
history traits were associated with burned or logged forest, although
insectivorous birds were more likely to be found in old growth forests and
increased over time. Birds in Mountain Ash forests are strongly associated
with old growth stands and exhibit complex, time-dependent and
species-specific responses to landscape disturbance. Despite logging and
fire both being high-severity perturbations, species responses to one kind
of landscape-scale disturbance are not readily predictable based on an
understanding of the responses to another kind of (albeit superficially
similar) disturbance.