Project Details

One of the key goals of sustainable forest management is retaining intact assemblages of forest wildlife. Our research focusses on components of avian biodiversity that can be used as indicators of environmental impacts, and is designed to assist forest operators to implement improved ecologically-based forest practices. We relate forest stand composition and structural features to avian diversity in mixed and coniferous forests of interior British Columbia, with special attention to cavity nesting forest vertebrates.

Cavity nesting communities are structured in nest webs, analogous to food webs, where ecological interactions are centred around nest site availability. In observational studies in old forests, cavity nesters exhibit a strong preference for nesting in unhealthy or dead aspen, near forest edges. Nest site resource flow through wildlife communities is strongly structured by availability of aspen, and ecological preferences of Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus), the keystone excavator. Using data on avian abundance and reproduction and habitat attributes, for sites prior to and after experimental harvesting, we will assess how natural and anthropogenic disturbances affect key functional relationships, such as cavity nester biodiversity and productivity, across a range of forest stand types and disturbance conditions.

We will develop criteria and test avian keystone species and resilience functions (our proposed forest ecosystem integrity indicators), across a range of forest ecosystems and natural disturbance types in interior British Columbia, and elsewhere in Canada. Our work will generate recommendations for maintaining or enhancing avian biodiversity across a range of natural variability, in several forest ecosystem types and silvicultural practices. Our proposed indicator models will have wide generality for Canadian forest ecosystems.