Dexi Zhang , Ruirui Mao , Mingxin Liu , Qian Zhou , Yizhu Wang , Xingfeng Si , Changming Zhao , Lixun Zhang
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Restoring forests is crucial for safeguarding biodiversity and providing ecosystem functions on degraded lands globally. Despite significant restoration efforts over a half-century in the Loess Plateau of China’s prominent dryland region, the impact of restored forests on biodiversity remains less understood. Unlike the abundant studies in the tropics, such understanding is urgently needed for dryland regions given that forest restoration is being scaled up. Here, we assessed the alpha- and beta-diversity of birds from taxonomic and functional dimensions in restored forests, and compared them to that of relatively undisturbed primary forests. We conducted rigorous point-count surveys and acoustic recordings during the avian breeding season in 2021 and 2023. We found that plantations have limited support for bird taxonomic and functional diversity compared to secondary and primary forests. Notably, the biodiversity inference drawn from our acoustic recordings generally supported similar conclusion of bird diversity across studied forest types. Additionally, secondary forests exhibited greater functional richness compared to plantations and contributed complementary functional trait space relative to primary forests. While nestedness dominated functional beta-diversity, spatial turnover dominated the taxonomic beta-diversity between the bird communities of restored forests and primary forests. Importantly, spatial proximity positively influenced the nestedness component of taxonomic beta-diversity, indicating that the distance of plantations to local primary forests (i.e., dispersal limitation) influenced bird community assembly during forest recovery. Overall, our findings provide insights on preserving intact primary forests, delivering biodiversity benefits of forest restoration in dryland regions, and prioritizing restoration locations only when tree planting is necessary.
期刊介绍:
Forest Ecology and Management publishes scientific articles linking forest ecology with forest management, focusing on the application of biological, ecological and social knowledge to the management and conservation of plantations and natural forests. The scope of the journal includes all forest ecosystems of the world.
A peer-review process ensures the quality and international interest of the manuscripts accepted for publication. The journal encourages communication between scientists in disparate fields who share a common interest in ecology and forest management, bridging the gap between research workers and forest managers.
We encourage submission of papers that will have the strongest interest and value to the Journal''s international readership. Some key features of papers with strong interest include:
1. Clear connections between the ecology and management of forests;
2. Novel ideas or approaches to important challenges in forest ecology and management;
3. Studies that address a population of interest beyond the scale of single research sites, Three key points in the design of forest experiments, Forest Ecology and Management 255 (2008) 2022-2023);
4. Review Articles on timely, important topics. Authors are welcome to contact one of the editors to discuss the suitability of a potential review manuscript.
The Journal encourages proposals for special issues examining important areas of forest ecology and management. Potential guest editors should contact any of the Editors to begin discussions about topics, potential papers, and other details.