Assembleias de aves de sub-bosque em floresta ombrófila mista e plantações de coníferas nativas e exóticas

Abstract

The decline of natural forests is a serious problem that can be alleviated by the growth of planted forests. Therefore, it is important to understand how these plantations can contribute to the maintenance of forest biodiversity. In this sense, our aim was to investigate whether conifer plantations, both native (Araucaria angustifolia) and exotic (Pinus elliottii), that are over 50 years old, have an understory presence, and are located close to natural forest fragments, can retain a diversity of birds similar to that found in natural forests (Mixed Ombrophilous Forest). To achieve our objective, we compared understory density, as well as understory bird richness, abundance, and composition among these three forest types. The study was conducted in the Passo Fundo National Forest, a sustainable use conservation unit located in Mato Castelhano, RS. Birds were sampled with mist nets in 18 plots, six in each forest type. To analyze the data, we used three rarefaction curves for richness, ANOVA with subsequent Tukey test for abundance and understory density, and Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling Analysis (NMDS) for species composition. Therefore, our results showed that rarefied species richness did not differ among the three forest types, while abundance and species composition did, with abundance being higher in the natural forest, followed by the Araucaria and Pinus plantations. Additionally, the species composition of the natural forest was more similar to that of the Araucaria plantation than that of the Pinus plantation. Thus, our results indicate that planted forests, especially those with native trees, can contribute to the maintenance of forest bird communities.