Data from: Avian ecological succession in the Amazon: a long-term case study following experimental deforestation

Approximately 20% of the Brazilian Amazon has now been deforested, and the
Amazon is currently experiencing the highest rates of deforestation in a
decade, leading to large-scale land-use changes. Roads have consistently
been implicated as drivers of ongoing Amazon deforestation and may act as
corridors to facilitate species invasions. Long-term data, however, are
necessary to determine how ecological succession alters avian communities
following deforestation and whether established roads lead to a constant
influx of new species.   We used data across nearly 40 years from
a large-scale deforestation experiment in the central Amazon to examine
the avian colonization process in a spatial and temporal framework,
considering the role that roads may play in facilitating colonization.
Since 1979, 139 species that are not part of the original forest avifauna
have been recorded, including more secondary forest species than expected
based on the regional species pool. Among the 35 species considered to
have colonized and become established, a disproportionate number were
secondary forest birds (63%), almost all of which first appeared during
the 1980s. These new residents comprise about 13% of the current community
of permanent residents. Widespread generalists associated with secondary
forest colonized quickly following deforestation, with few new species
added after the first decade, despite a stable road connection. Few
species associated with riverine forest or specialized habitats colonized,
despite road connection to their preferred source habitat. Colonizing
species remained restricted to anthropogenic habitats and did not
infiltrate old-growth forests nor displace forest birds. Deforestation and
expansion of road networks into terra firme rainforest will continue to
create degraded anthropogenic habitat. Even so, the initial pulse of
colonization by non-primary forest bird species was not the beginning of a
protracted series of invasions in this study, and the process appears to
be reversible by forest succession.