Birds communities in pine plantations on the Southern Cumberland Plateau

David Haskell (Presenter), Department of Biology, University of the South

I evaluated the effects of conversion of native mixed hardwood forests to pine plantations on the abundance and diversity of birds in the Southern Cumberland Plateau.  This study was part of the Small Area Assessment underway in this region.  I made distance counts of birds in both native forests and plantations across a range of stand ages.  Bird richness and diversity were lower in pine plantations, and bird abundance was lower for most species, except a few "early successional" species that were found at higher densities in young pine stands.  I will discuss these data in the context of regional patterns of forest change and trends in bird populations.

Workshop IV: Terrestrial Ecosystems

Sustaining
Southern
Forests

a conference sponsored by the Southern Forest Resource Assessment