Changing lenses to understand and manage forest biodiversity: nest webs as Complex Adaptive Systems in the Americas
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Date
2017
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Abstract
A single dominant objective (e.g. flagship or threatened species) usually shapes the "lenses" through which biodiversity is assessed and managed in forest ecosystems. However, forests are Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) in which patterns at higher levels emerge from localized networks of many entities (species, guilds) interacting at lower levels. Tree cavity-nesting communities exist within interaction networks known as "nest webs" that link trees, excavators (e.g. woodpeckers), and secondary cavity nesters (e.g. many songbirds, ducks, raptors, and other vertebrates). Despite growing acknowledgement of the importance of using Complex System Science (CSS) by conservation biologists, its application for understanding nest webs is just emerging. We assess the properties of nest webs (heterogeneity, hierarchy, memory, adaptation, and non-linearity) as CAS using situated exemplars from cavity-nesting communities across temperate, subtropical , and tropical forests of the Americas (Chile, Canada, Argentina, Ecuador). Although our nest webs have independent evolutionary histories, structures, and disturbance patterns, they share the main properties of CAS. We show that applying CSS in this context has implications for the usage of new, but also conventional conservation management concepts and practices. Understanding nest webs as CAS will facilitate our ability to view how forest-dwelling cavity nesters self-organize and adapt in the face of rapid changes occurring in forests of the Americas.
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Forestry, Ornithology, Conservation Biology, Biodiversity, Wildlife Conservation, Complex Adaptive Systems, Biodiversity Conservation, Neotropical ornithology, Forestry Science