DOI: 10.5061/dryad.mt3tr
title: Data from: Chaparral bird community responses to prescribed fire and shrub removal in three management seasons

description: Chaparral, a type of shrubland common throughout the California Floristic
 Province, is subject to management and removal in regions where wildfire
 threatens human lives and property. Management practices include
 conducting prescribed burns outside of the historical fire season and
 employing mechanical fuel reduction (mastication). As the wildland–urban
 interface grows, particularly in coastal California, more of this
 ecosystem is subject to active management. To understand the ecological
 implications of current California chaparral fire management practices, we
 studied bird species composition, abundance and foraging guilds in managed
 and unmanaged chaparral over 5 years. Study areas were located in
 Mendocino County in the coast ranges of northern California. We contrast
 six chaparral removal or “fuels manipulation” treatments: (1) fall fire,
 (2) winter fire, (3) spring fire, (4) fall mastication, (5) spring
 mastication and (6) untreated control. Treatments and controls were
 implemented in plots 2 ha or larger, and replicated four times each. We
 find that species richness in prescribed fire treatments reaches
 comparable levels to controls in the first 3 years following treatment,
 whereas masticated units always have lower species richness. Generalized
 linear mixed models additionally confirm that mastication has highly
 negative effects on observed abundances of birds compared to controls and
 to prescribed fire. The season in which fuels reduction occurred was less
 important to species richness, although fall fire was more beneficial to
 bird abundance than spring or winter fire. Fire treatments in all seasons
 maintain the same general bird community structure as controls, while
 mastication results in strongly differentiated assemblages, increasing
 granivores while nearly excluding foliage gleaners. Synthesis and
 applications. We compare two California chaparral management techniques,
 prescribed fire and mastication, in three seasons (fall, winter and
 spring) in northern California, USA. We tracked chaparral bird community
 response in 23 experimental units for 2–5 years. We conclude that
 prescribed fire and mastication are not interchangeable management
 techniques, and that mastication negatively impacts bird communities,
 altering guild structure and reducing both diversity and abundance.
description: Newman et al, 2017.
 California chaparral bird community responses to wildfire
 managementThis data contains all
 observations of individual birds in 23 experimental management units at
 the Hopland Research and Extension Center in Ukiah, California, USA, and
 surrounding lands. Management was either implemented as prescribed fire or
 mastication (mechanical removal of shrubs), in one of three seasons (fall,
 winter or spring). Metadata notes and variable names and definitions are
 contained in separate files.Newman_etal_JAPPL_California_chaparral_birds_2017.csvNewman_2017_metadata_notesNotes on data collection, synthesized variables, and use of data.Newman_etal_2017_metadata_variablenamesVariable names and definitions used in main data sheet.