Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

CSIRO Publishing, Australian Journal of Zoology, 1(71), 2023

DOI: 10.1071/zo22018

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Birds pre-adapted to a road in a heterogeneous and contiguous old-growth forest: a point transect study

Journal article published in 2023 by Graham R. Fulton ORCID, Jutta Beher, Hugh P. Possingham
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

Full text: Unavailable

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Roads are present globally across all habitats and their negative impacts on the landscape are being increasingly reported. Yet often more is known about the identity of roadkill than how avian assemblages are impacted by roads. This study used 100 paired point counts by the road and 400 m into the forest interior to assess if the assemblages were different and determine what species may be impacted by the road. The study was undertaken along a highway cut through one of the world’s tallest forests – old-growth karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor) forest of south-western Australia. There was no overall significant difference in species richness and abundance between road and forest interior sites, although a small number of species (4.3%) did demonstrate preferences. Overall, we suggest that the limited significant differences resulted from: (1) the narrowness of the road with the forest canopy frequently extended fully across and (2) the natural variation found in eucalypt forests, which has aided the birds as a pre-adaptation to the presence of this road – because eucalypt forests are a heterogeneous array of streams and forest heterogeneity.