THE INFLUENCE OF FIRE UPON BIRD RICHNESS AND DIVERSITY IN A TEMPERATE FOREST OF PUEBLA STATE

Abstract

From an ecological point of view, fire has a positive effect on wildlife and their habitat in fire dependant ecosystems and under fire regimes not very altered. There are very few studies regarding the effects of fire on birds in Mexico The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of fire on the richness and diversity of birds in oak-pine woodland in Chignahuapan, Puebla State, Mexico, under three different conditions: 1st) not recently burned (more than five years, C1); 2nd) burned the year before at low severity (C2) and 3rd) burned the year before at high severity (C3). For bird sampling, circular lots and mist nets were used, as well as taxonomic keys for bird identification. Results lead to the record of 30 species of birds, which belong to six orders and 20 families; 22 of those species are grouped in C1, 12 in C2 and 10 in C3. Bird diversity was determined by the Shannon-Wiener index for each condition. According to the t Hutchenson test, differences were confirmed between C2 (2.079) and C3 (1.040), from the mist net method and from the circular plots, differences were recorded for C1 (2.198) and C3 (1.850). Based on the aforementioned results, it is concluded that fire is an ecological factor that causes significant changes in richness and diversity of birds on the short run.