Are boreal birds resilient to forest fragmentation? An experimental study of short-term community responses.

Conclusions: Although there was not a detectable decrease in bird communitiy species richness resulting from experimental forest fragmentation, community structure was altered, and maintaining connections between fragments significantly mitigated these effects. Thresholds/Learnings: Synopsis: This study examined the effects of forest fragmentation on the richness, diversity, turnover, and abundance of breeding bird communities in old boreal mixed-wood forest by creating experimental forest fragments of 1, 10, 40, and 100 ha. Connected fragments were linked by 100 m wide buffer strips. The study detected no significant change in species richness as a result of forest harvesting, except in the 1 ha connected fragments where the number [...]