TY  - JOUR
A1  - Heim, Ramona J.
A1  - Hölzel, Norbert
A1  - Heinken, Thilo
A1  - Kamp, Johannes
A1  - Thomas, Alexander
A1  - Darman, Galina F.
A1  - Smirenski, Sergei M.
A1  - Heim, Wieland
T1  - Post-burn and long-term fire effects on plants and birds in floodplain wetlands of the Russian Far East
JF  - Biodiversity and conservation
N2  - Wildfires affect biodiversity at multiple levels. While vegetation is directly changed by fire events, animals are often indirectly affected through changes in habitat and food availability. Globally, fire frequency and the extent of fires are predicted to increase in the future. The impact of fire on the biodiversity of temperate wetlands has gained little attention so far. We compared species richness and abundance of plants and birds in burnt and unburnt areas in the Amur floodplain/Russian Far East in the year of fire and 1 year after. We also analysed vegetation recovery in relation to time since fire over a period of 18 years. Plant species richness was higher in burnt compared to unburnt plots in the year of the fire, but not in the year after. This suggests that fire has a positive short-term effect on plant diversity. Bird species richness and abundance were lower on burnt compared to unburnt plots in the year of the fire, but not in the year after. Over a period of 18 years, high fire frequency led to an increase in herb cover and a decrease in grass cover. We show that the effects on biodiversity are taxon- and species-specific. Fire management strategies in temperate wetlands should consider fire frequency as a key driving force of vegetation structure, with carry-over effects on higher trophic levels. Designing fire refuges, i.e., areas that do not burn annually, might locally be necessary to maintain high species richness.
KW  - Disturbance
KW  - Bird species richness
KW  - Vegetation structure
KW  - Fire frequency
KW  - Amur River
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-019-01746-3
SN  - 0960-3115
SN  - 1572-9710
VL  - 28
IS  - 6
SP  - 1611
EP  - 1628
PB  - Springer
CY  - Dordrecht
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Frommhold, Martin
A1  - Heim, Arend
A1  - Barabanov, Mikhail
A1  - Maier, Franziska
A1  - Mühle, Ralf-Udo
A1  - Smirenski, Sergei M.
A1  - Heim, Wieland
T1  - Breeding habitat and nest-site selection by an obligatory "nest-cleptoparasite", the Amur Falcon Falco amurensis
JF  - Ecology and evolution
N2  - The selection of a nest site is crucial for successful reproduction of birds. Animals which re-use or occupy nest sites constructed by other species often have limited choice. Little is known about the criteria of nest-stealing species to choose suitable nesting sites and habitats. Here, we analyze breeding-site selection of an obligatory "nest-cleptoparasite", the Amur Falcon Falco amurensis. We collected data on nest sites at Muraviovka Park in the Russian Far East, where the species breeds exclusively in nests of the Eurasian Magpie Pica pica. We sampled 117 Eurasian Magpie nests, 38 of which were occupied by Amur Falcons. Nest-specific variables were assessed, and a recently developed habitat classification map was used to derive landscape metrics. We found that Amur Falcons chose a wide range of nesting sites, but significantly preferred nests with a domed roof. Breeding pairs of Eurasian Hobby Falco subbuteo and Eurasian Magpie were often found to breed near the nest in about the same distance as neighboring Amur Falcon pairs. Additionally, the occurrence of the species was positively associated with bare soil cover, forest cover, and shrub patches within their home range and negatively with the distance to wetlands. Areas of wetlands and fallow land might be used for foraging since Amur Falcons mostly depend on an insect diet. Additionally, we found that rarely burned habitats were preferred. Overall, the effect of landscape variables on the choice of actual nest sites appeared to be rather small. We used different classification methods to predict the probability of occurrence, of which the Random forest method showed the highest accuracy. The areas determined as suitable habitat showed a high concordance with the actual nest locations. We conclude that Amur Falcons prefer to occupy newly built (domed) nests to ensure high nest quality, as well as nests surrounded by available feeding habitats.
KW  - cleptoparasitism
KW  - fire
KW  - habitat use
KW  - machine learning
KW  - magpie
KW  - nest-site selection
KW  - random forest
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5878
SN  - 2045-7758
VL  - 9
IS  - 24
SP  - 14430
EP  - 14441
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  -