Effects of ground fires on understorey bird assemblages in Amazonian forests

摘要: Avifaunal responses to understorey fire disturbance and subsequent changes in habitat structure were examined within 20 burnt unburnt forest plots of 0.25 ha (10×250 m), 10–15 months after an unprecedented swept through the Tapajos-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve central Brazilian Amazonia following severe 1997–1998 El-Nino dry season. Although these surface fires previously undisturbed primary relatively mild, they resulted dramatic consistent with those found elsewhere Amazonia. Bird species negatively affected by tended be least common, most disturbance-sensitive, specialists. Considering different guilds, ant followers, dead-leaf gleaners, terrestrial arboreal sallying insectivores affected, whereas nectivores granivores became more abundant forest. The results highlight consequences even mild neotropical forests, importance controlling haphazard frontier expansion for conservation susceptible that are endemic fire-prone regions.