A new research done by the Point Blue Conservation Science along with various scientists talks about the response of birds to wildfire of varying severity levels. The temperatures are up and rising in America and California is soon going to approach its- what many people call the “wildfire season”. Scientists are always working to study the effects of the wildfires on the biodiversity. This new research, published recently in the journal Ecosphere of the Ecological Society of America, thoroughly explored the effects of these inevitable wildfires birds and how might be that linked to the severity and intensity of the fires. Scientists studied about 10 wildfires for 15 years in the forests of northern Sierra Nevada.
The research confirmed that the wildfires did have a significant effect on the populations of birds in the forest, but the extremity of the wildfires had different and specific effects on different species of birds. For the study the scientists studied 44 species of birds. The results varied with 18 species showing the their highest density after a very intense and severe wildfire, 10 species after a moderately severe wildfire and 16 species after a low intensity wildfire. Dr. Paul Taillie, lead author of the study and a researcher at North Carolina State University said, “One of the most important things we found was how varied the response was between areas that burned at different levels of severity as well the time after the fire it took for different species to reach their peak abundance. This reinforces the idea that mixed severity fires are crucial to sustaining a diversity of bird life in Sierra forests and that these burned landscapes are providing important habitat for decades after they burn.”
Apart from studying the effects of the fires on the bird populations scientists also studied more complex responses of the birds to the fire. The changes in populations did not simply increase or decrease in a consistent way during the 15-year time period, but rather showed “complex patterns”. Ryan Burnett,who works with Point Blue said, “Our findings really illustrate how dynamic the avian community is after these fires. Many of the species peaked in density during a narrow window of time after fire in a specific burn severity class. We just don’t see this rapid change in the bird community in green forests even after mechanical fuel reductions. It suggests we be cautious in prescribing post-fire management actions that alter the trajectory of these forests. We hope this research helps land managers make informed decisions about managing these dynamic post-fire bird habitats.”