Abstract

Forest wildfires are predicted to be more frequent and severe as a result of climate change. Consequently, the study and management of wildfires have become national and international priorities because of the negative consequences of these disturbances on human well-being and biodiversity. Wildfires are known to modify vegetation structure, community composition, and the guild structure of vertebrate assemblages. However, little is known about the effects of wildfires on ecosystem functioning, especially on the functional diversity (value, range, and density of functional traits) of tree-dependent biodiversity such as cavity-nesting avian communities. This is especially true for Andean temperate forests of southern Chile, a Global Biodiversity Hotspot showing one of the highest proportions of cavity nesters (57% of the avian community, 29 species) for any forest system. Here, natural fires play an important role in shaping the ecology of forest stands; however, increases in anthropogenic fire ignitions have dramatically altered the frequency and severity of fires. The goal of this project is to quantify the taxonomic and functional responses of the cavity-nesting community to major landscape disturbance resulting from a large-scale wildfire event, in protected areas within the Araucarias Biosphere Reserve, Andean temperate forests, Chile. The study area is currently embedded in a landscape combining forest remnants and burned sites with different degrees of fire severity. Over a 3-year period (2016-2019), I will conduct avian point-transect surveys, functional trait surveys, and habitat assessments from the stand- to landscape-levels, across 60 sites comprising a range of conditions from unburned, through moderately burned, to severely burned forest stands. I aim to understand changes in the functional diversity of the cavity-nesting bird community across different degrees of wildfire severity, along with changes in avian species richness and avian community composition. In addition, I will determine if habitat resources at the stand- and landscape-levels are associated with the observed functional diversity of the cavity-nesting bird community. This project will deliver scientific papers, congress presentations and symposiums, undergraduate and graduate theses. Importantly, I will generate a set of guidelines for forest management and restoration decision-making, for the Chilean Forest Service (CONAF). I will strengthen international collaborations with two internationally renowned ecologists. Finally, this project will organize an International Seminar on "Functional biodiversity conservation under wildfires and climate change".