Effect of clear cutting on birds in brutian pine forests in the Western Mediterranean Region

• Main Authors: Doğan Akdemir, İbrahim Özdemir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Isparta University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Forestry 2015-11-01
• Series: Turkish Journal of Forestry
• Subjects: -; brutian pine; clear-cut; bird species richness; average bird density; kızılçam; tıraşlama kesim; kuş türü zenginliği; ortalama kuş yoğunluğu
• Online Access: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/tjf/issue/20905/224567?publisher=iubu

Brutian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) is the most widespread tree species among the conifer species of Turkey. Intensive management activities have been carried on for many decades due to the facts that brutian pine stands are easily and successfully regenerated, and this tree species shows a rapid growing performance. Structural diversity of the brutian forests [both among stands (landscape diversity and stand diversity) and within a stand (vertical diversity or canopy layering)] decreases resulting from this intensive timber management activities and it is considered that wildlife is adversely affected from this unfavorable situation. Therefore, it is considered that researches examining the influences of clear cuts on wildlife are significant for a sustainable forest management. In this scope, this paper investigates the influence of clear cuts on bird species in the forests in the Western Mediterranean Region. The study was carried out in the brutian pine stands, along the Antalya-Isparta main road, located inside the boundaries of forest management units including Bucak, Sütçüler, Serik, and Eğirdir. Bird observations were realized in 45 sampling plots with 0.25 ha. The plots were equally taken from the 3 age classes (1-5; 15-40 and >80) of forest stands generated after clear cut harvesting and natural mature stands with old-growth characteristics. Accordingly, bird observations were made 15 different regions including these three brutian pine stands. Three stand types were selected in juxtaposition as far as possible in order to minimize other environmental factors such as distance form water sources, altitude, and aspect. In each plot, bird species richness and average bird density was determined during a series of observations in definite intervals. A “One Way Variance Analysis” was used in order to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between stand types and bird species richness / average bird density. Furthermore, an “Interspecific Correlation Analysis” was employed in order to determine the relationships between bird species and the stand types.