Abstract
Following wildfires, salvage logging is applied for silvicultural, safety or even aesthetic reasons. Such operations impact on biological legacies, impair natural vegetation recovery and may affect several animal species that depend on vegetation structure and specific plant resources. Rodents, such as wood and Algerian mice, use vegetation cover as protection against predators and are important prey, moderately effective seed dispersers and efficient seed predators. Different post-fire management strategies may either promote rodent abundance, enhancing their key biological roles, or result in low rodent abundance, creating a low seed predation window of opportunity when assisted regeneration of burnt forests is required. In order to evaluate the effects of post-fire salvage logging on plant-animal interactions, we compared plant regeneration, the availability of trophic resources (seeds and fleshy fruits), rodent foraging activity and rodent relative abundance between unlogged and logged burnt pine forests in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula at different distances (up to 700 m) from the burnt area perimeter. The results show that vegetation recovered more slowly in salvage logged than in unlogged areas. Foraging activity of rodents increased both with the volume of woody debris, mainly derived from salvage logging, and with increasing foliage cover. Management strategies aimed at promoting the presence of rodents and associated biodiversity can, however, hamper assisted regeneration by seed sowing.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ballesteros T, Degollada A, Plaza V (2000) Dieta de la fagina al Parc Natural de Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac. In: Xarxa de Parcs Naturals (ed) IV Trobada d’Estudiosos de Sant Llorenç Munt i l’Obac, vol 29. Monografies. Diputació de Barcelona, Barcelona, pp 119–122
Banks SC, Dujardin M, McBurney L, Blair D, Barker M, Lindenmayer DB (2011) Starting points for small mammal population recovery after wildfire: recolonisation or residual populations? Oikos 120:26–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2010.18765.x
Bartoń K (2016) Multi-model inference (MuMIn). R package version 1.15.6. Vienna, Austria
Bates D, Maechler M, Bolker B, Walker S (2015) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J Stat Softw 67:1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
Beschta RL et al (2004) Postfire management on forested public lands of the Western United States. Conserv Biol 18:957–967. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2004.00495.x
Bogdziewicz M, Zwolak R (2014) Responses of small mammals to clear-cutting in temperate and boreal forests of Europe: a meta-analysis and review. Eur J For Res 133:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-013-0726-x
Broncano MJ, Rodrigo A, Retana J (2008) Post-dispersal seed predation in Pinus halepensis and consequences on seedling establishment after fire. Int J Wildland Fire 17:407–414. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF07095
Buhk C, Meyn A, Jentsch A (2007) The challenge of plant regeneration after fire in the Mediterranean Basin: scientific gaps in our knowledge on plant strategies and evolution of traits. Plant Ecol 192:1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-006-9224-2
Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2002) Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach, 2nd edn. Springer, New York. ISBN 978-0-387-22456-5
Castro J, Allen CD, Molina-Morales M, Maranon-Jimenez S, Sanchez-Miranda A, Zamora R (2011) Salvage logging versus the use of burnt wood as a nurse object to promote post-fire tree seedling establishment. Restor Ecol 19:537–544. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-100X.2009.00619.x
Castro J, Puerta-Piñero C, Leverkus AB, Moreno-Rueda G, Sánchez-Miranda A (2012) Post-fire salvage logging alters a key plant-animal interaction for forest regeneration. Ecosphere 3:art90. https://doi.org/10.1890/es12-00089.1
Cervera T, Pino J, Marull J, Padró R, Tello E (2019) Understanding the long-term dynamics of forest transition: from deforestation to afforestation in a Mediterranean landscape (Catalonia, 1868–2005). Land Use Policy 80:318–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.10.006
Dellasala DA et al (2006) Post-fire logging debate ignores many issues. Science 314:51–52. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.314.5796.51b
Díaz-Ruiz F, Delibes-Mateos M, García-Moreno JL, María López-Martín J, Ferreira C, Ferreras P (2013) Biogeographical patterns in the diet of an opportunistic predator: the red fox Vulpes vulpes in the Iberian Peninsula. Mamm Rev 43:59–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2907.2011.00206.x
Donato DC, Fontaine JB, Campbell JL, Robinson WD, Kauffman JB, Law BE (2006) Post-wildfire logging hinders regeneration and increases fire risk. Science 311:352. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1122855
Fernández C, Acosta FJ, Abellá G, López F, Díaz M (2002) Complex edge effect fields as additive processes in patches of ecological systems. Ecol Model 149:273–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3800(01)00464-1
Fox J, Monette G (1992) Generalized collinearity diagnostics. J Am Stat Assoc 87:178–183. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1992.10475190
Fox J, Weisberg S (2011) An R companion to applied regression, 2nd edn. SAGE Publications Inc, Thousand Oaks
Gómez JM (2004) Importance of microhabitat and acorn burial on Quercus ilex early recruitment: non-additive effects on multiple demographic processes. Plant Ecol 172:287–297. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:VEGE.0000026327.60991.f9
Gómez JM, Puerta-Piñero C, Schupp EW (2008) Effectiveness of rodents as local seed dispersers of Holm oaks. Oecologia 155:529–537. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0928-3
González JR, Pukkala T (2007) Characterization of forest fires in Catalonia (North-East Spain). Eur J For Res 126:421–429. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-006-0164-0
Haim A, Izhaki I (1994) Changes in rodent community during recovery from fire: relevance to conservation. Biodivers Conserv 3:573–585. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00114202
Hilbe JM (2014) Modeling count data, 1st edn. Cambridge University Press, New York. ISBN 978-1-107-61125-2
Hutto RL (2006) Toward meaningful snag-management guidelines for postfire salvage logging in North American conifer forests. Conserv Biol 20:984–993. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00494.x
Jędrzejewska B, Jędrzejewski W (1990) Antipredatory behaviour of bank voles and prey choice of weasels—enclosure experiments. Ann Zool Fenn 27:321–328
Keeley JE (2009) Fire intensity, fire severity and burn severity: a brief review and suggested usage. Int J Wildland Fire 18:116–126. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF07049
Kelly LT, Brotons L (2017) Using fire to promote biodiversity. Science 355:1264–1265. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam7672
Kelly LT, Brotons L, McCarthy MA (2017) Putting pyrodiversity to work for animal conservation. Conserv Biol 31:952–955. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12861
Leverkus AB, Castro J, Puerta-Piñero C, Rey-Benayas JM (2013) Suitability of the management of habitat complexity, acorn burial depth, and a chemical repellent for post-fire reforestation of oaks. Ecol Eng 53:15–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.01.003
Limousin J, Rambal S, Ourcival J, Rocheteau A, Joffre R, Rodríguez-Cortina R (2009) Long-term transpiration change with rainfall decline in a Mediterranean Quercus ilex forest. Glob Change Biol 15:2163–2175. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01852.x
Lindenmayer DB, Foster DR, Franklin JF, Hunter ML (2004) Salvage harvesting policies after natural disturbance. Science 303:1303. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1093438
Longland WS, Price MV (1991) Direct observations of owls and heteromyid rodents: can predation risk explain microhabitat use? Ecology 72:2261–2273. https://doi.org/10.2307/1941576
Lüdecke D (2017) sjPlot: data visualization for statistics in social science. R package version 2.3.1. Vienna, Austria
Manning JA, Edge WD (2008) Small mammal responses to fine woody debris and forest fuel reduction in southwest Oregon. J Wildl Manag 72:625–632. https://doi.org/10.2193/2005-508
Martelletti S, Lingua E, Meloni F, Freppaz M, Motta R, Nosenzo A, Marzano R (2018) Microsite manipulation in lowland oak forest restoration results in indirect effects on acorn predation. Forest Ecol Manag 411:27–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2018.01.007
Martin TG, Wintle BA, Rhodes JR, Kuhnert PM, Field SA, Low-Choy SJ, Tyre AJ, Possingham HP (2005) Zero tolerance ecology: improving ecological inference by modelling the source of zero observations. Ecol Lett 8(11):1235–1246. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00826.x
Marzano R, Garbarino M, Marcolin E, Pividori M, Lingua E (2013) Deadwood anisotropic facilitation on seedling establishment after a stand-replacing wildfire in Aosta Valley (NW Italy). Ecol Eng 51:117–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2012.12.030
Mauri E, Pons P (2019) Handbook of good practices in post-wildfire management, 2nd edn. Anifog Project, CGL2014-54094-R, Universitat de Girona. 169pp. ISBN: 978-84-8458-564-0
Mavsar R, Varela E, Corona P, Barbati A, Marsh G (2012) Economic, legal and social aspects of post-fire management. In: Moreira F, Arianoutsou M, Corona P, De las Heras J (eds) Post-fire management and restoration of Southern European forests. Springer, Amsterdam, pp 45–78
McComb WC (2003) Ecology of coarse woody debris and its role as habitat for mammals. In: Zabel CJ, Anthony RG (eds) mammal community dynamics: management and conservation in the coniferous forests of Western North America, 1st edn. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 374–404
Müller J, Hothorn T, Pretzsch H (2007) Long-term effects of logging intensity on structures, birds, saproxylic beetles and wood-inhabiting fungi in stands of European beech Fagus sylvatica L. Forest Ecol Manag 242:297–305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2007.01.046
Müller J, Noss RF, Thorn S, Bässler C, Leverkus AB, Lindenmayer D (2018) Increasing disturbance demands new policies to conserve intact forest. Conserv Lett. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12449
Pearson DE, Ruggiero LF (2003) Transect versus grid trapping arrangements for sampling small-mammal communities. Wildl Soc Bull 31:454–459
Perea R, San Miguel A, Gil L (2011) Acorn dispersal by rodents: the importance of re-dispersal and distance to shelter. Basic Appl Ecol 12:432–439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2011.05.002
Peterson DW, Dodson EK, Harrod RJ (2015) Post-fire logging reduces surface woody fuels up to four decades following wildfire. Forest Ecol Manag 338:84–91
Pons P, Rost J (2017) The challenge of conserving biodiversity in harvested burned forests. Conserv Biol 31:226–228. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12767
Prodon R, Lebreton J-D (1981) Breeding avifauna of a Mediterranean succession: the holm oak and cork oak series in the eastern Pyrenees, 1. Analysis and modelling of the structure gradient. Oikos 37:21–38. https://doi.org/10.2307/3544069
Puerta-Piñero C, Sanchez-Miranda A, Leverkus AB, Castro J (2010) Management of burnt wood after fire affects post-dispersal acorn predation. Forest Ecol Manag 260:345–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2010.04.023
Puig-Gironès R, Brotons L, Pons P (2017) Aridity influences the recovery of Mediterranean shrubland birds after wildfire. PLoS ONE 12:e0173599. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173599
Puig-Gironès R, Clavero M, Pons P (2018) Importance of internal refuges and external unburnt area perimeter on the recovery of rodent populations after wildfire. Int J Wildland Fire 27:425–436. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF17102
Pulido FJ, Díaz M (2005) Regeneration of a Mediterranean oak: a whole-cycle approach. Ecoscience 12:92–102. https://doi.org/10.2980/i1195-6860-12-1-92.1
R Development Core Team (2017) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Development Core Team, Vienna
Revelle WR (2017) psych: procedures for personality and psychological research. Northwestern University, Evanston
Rollan À, Real J (2011) Effect of wildfires and post-fire forest treatments on rabbit abundance. Eur J Forest Res 57:201–209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-010-0412-y
Rost J, Clavero M, Bas JM, Pons P (2010) Building wood debris piles benefits avian seed dispersers in burned and logged Mediterranean pine forests. For Ecol Manage 260:79–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2010.04.003
Sainz-Elipe S, Saez-Duran S, Galan-Puchades MT, Fuentes MV (2012) Small mammal (Soricomorpha and Rodentia) dynamics after a wildfire in a Mediterranean ecosystem. Mammalia 76:251–259. https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2011-0020
Santos X, Poquet JM (2010) Ecological succession and habitat attributes affect the postfire response of a Mediterranean reptile community. Eur J Forest Res 56:895–905. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-010-0387-8
Seip CR, Hodder DP, Crowley SM, Johnson CJ (2018) Use of constructed coarse woody debris corridors in a clearcut by American martens (Martes americana) and their prey. Forestry. https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpy010
Sikes RS, Gannon WL, Animal Care and Use Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists (2011) Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild mammals in research. J Mamm 92:235–253. https://doi.org/10.1644/10-MAMM-F-355.1
Slade NA, Blair SM (2000) An empirical test of using counts of individuals captured as indices of population size. J Mamm 81:1035–1045. https://doi.org/10.1644/1545-1542(2000)081%3c1035:AETOUC%3e2.0.CO;2
Smit C, Ouden J, Díaz M (2008) Facilitation of Quercus ilex recruitment by shrubs in Mediterranean open woodlands. J Veg Sci 19:193–200. https://doi.org/10.3170/2007-8-18352
Stein A, Gerstner K, Kreft H (2014) Environmental heterogeneity as a universal driver of species richness across taxa, biomes and spatial scales. Ecol Lett 17:866–880. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12277
Sullivan TP, Sullivan DS, Lindgren PM, Ransome DB (2012) If we build habitat, will they come? Woody debris structures and conservation of forest mammals. J Mamm 93:1456–1468. https://doi.org/10.1644/11-MAMM-A-250.1
Thorn S et al (2018) Impacts of salvage logging on biodiversity—a meta-analysis. J Appl Ecol 55:279–289. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12945
Torre I, Arrizabalaga A (2008) Habitat preferences of the bank vole Myodes glareolus in a Mediterranean mountain range. Acta Theriol 53:241–250. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03193120
Torre I, Díaz M (2004) Small mammal abundance in Mediterranean post-fire habitats: a role for predators? Acta Oecol 25:137–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actao.2003.10.007
Torre I, Raspall A, Arrizabalaga A, Díaz M (2018) SEMICE: an unbiased and powerful monitoring protocol for small mammals in the Mediterranean Region. Mamm Biol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2017.10.009
Tyler CM, Kuhn B, Davis FW (2006) Demography and recruitment limitations of three oak species in California. Q Rev Biol 81:127–152. https://doi.org/10.1086/506025
Vallecillo S, Hermoso Lopez V, Possingham HP, Brotons L (2013) Conservation planning in a fire-prone Mediterranean region: threats and opportunities for bird species. Landsc Ecol 28:1517–1528
Wagenmakers E-J, Farrell S (2004) AIC model selection using Akaike weights. Psychon B Rev 11:192–196. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206482
Zaitsev AS, Gongalsky KB, Persson T, Bengtsson J (2014) Connectivity of litter islands remaining after a fire and unburnt forest determines the recovery of soil fauna. Appl Soil Ecol 83:101–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2014.01.007
Zuur AF, Ieno EN, Walker NJ, Saveliev AA, Smith GM (2009) Mixed effects models and extensions in ecology with R. Statistics for biology and health. Springer, New York. ISBN 978-0-387-87457-9
Zuur AF, Ieno EN, Elphick CS (2010) A protocol for data exploration to avoid common statistical problems. Methods Ecol Evol 1:3–14
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank C. Sanchez Cascante for her illustrations of Fig. 1; G. Vila, P. Eijo and the Galanthus Association for their help during this study; our thanks also to S. Herrando, X. Santos, J. Camprodon and M. Díaz for fruitful discussions and their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. This work derives from the doctoral thesis of Roger Puig-Gironès and was supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [CGL2014-54094-R].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
RP-G and PP conceived and designed the research; RP-G collected the data; RP-G analysed the data; RP-G, MC, LI, JR and PP wrote and reviewed the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Gediminas Brazaitis.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Puig-Gironès, R., Imbeau, L., Clavero, M. et al. Does post-fire salvage logging affect foraging activity by rodents?. Eur J Forest Res 139, 777–790 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-020-01285-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-020-01285-5