Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb 26:7:229.
doi: 10.12688/f1000research.13996.2. eCollection 2018.

Birds of primary and secondary forest and shrub habitats in the peat swamp of Berbak National Park, Sumatra

Kevin Darras  1 , Dedi Rahman  2 , Waluyo Sugito  2 , Yeni Mulyani  3 , Dewi Prawiradilaga  4 , Agus Rozali  5 , Irfan Fitriawan  6 , Teja Tscharntke  1
Affiliations

Birds of primary and secondary forest and shrub habitats in the peat swamp of Berbak National Park, Sumatra

Kevin Darras et al. F1000Res. .

Abstract

Background: Tropical lowland rainforests are threatened by deforestation and degradation worldwide. Relatively little research has investigated the degradation of the forests of South-east Asia and its impact on biodiversity, and even less research has focused on the important peat swamp forests of Indonesia, which experienced major losses through severe fires in 2015. Methods: We acoustically sampled the avifauna of the Berbak National Park in 2013 in 12 plots split in three habitats: primary swamp forest, secondary swamp forest, and shrub swamp, respectively representing non-degraded, previously selectively logged, and burned habitats. We analysed the species richness, abundance, vocalisation activity, and community composition across acoustic counts, plots, feeding guilds and IUCN Red List categories. We also analysed community-weighted means of body mass, wing length, and distribution area. Results: The avifauna in the three habitats was remarkably similar in richness, abundance and vocalisation activity, and communities mainly differed due to a lower prevalence of understory insectivores (Old-World Babblers, Timaliidae) in shrub swamp. However primary forest retained twice as many conservation-worthy species as shrub swamp, which harboured heavier, probably more mobile species, with larger distributions than those of forest habitats. Conclusions: The National Park overall harboured higher bird abundances than nearby lowland rainforests. Protecting the remaining peat swamp forest in this little-known National Park should be a high conservation priority in the light of the current threats coming from wildlife trade, illegal logging, land use conversion, and man-made fires.

Keywords: community ecology; forest disturbance; forest fires; primary forest; secondary forest; selective logging; shrub swamp; swamp forest.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No competing interests were disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Map of the study area.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Bird richness components at the plot scale.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Bird taxonomical and functional traits in each habitat.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. Bird abundance in each family.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Gibson L, Lee TM, Koh LP, et al. : Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity. Nature. 2011;478(7369):378–81. 10.1038/nature10425 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Asner GP, Knapp DE, Broadbent EN, et al. : Selective logging in the Brazilian Amazon. Science. 2005;310(5747):480–2. 10.1126/science.1118051 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Matricardi EAT, Skole DL, Pedlowski MA, et al. : Assessment of tropical forest degradation by selective logging and fire using Landsat imagery. Remote Sens Environ. 2010;114(5):1117–29. 10.1016/j.rse.2010.01.001 - DOI
    1. Sodhi NS, Brook B: Biodiversity crisis in Southeast Asia.2009;84–90. Reference Source
    1. Chisholm RA, Wijedasa LS, Swinfield T: The need for long-term remedies for Indonesia’s forest fires. Conserv Biol. 2016;30(1):5–6. 10.1111/cobi.12662 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources