Short-term effects of reduced-impact logging on eastern Amazon fauna
Introduction
The timber industry of the Brazilian Amazon region has changed from a slowly evolving base of extraction in the estuary areas to an extensive road network penetrating upland (Terra Firme) forests (Stone, 1998, Nepstad et al., 2001). The result has been a dramatic increase in the area of forest with economically accessible timber, and a consequent significant expansion of logging activity. High timber prices, available lands, and low cost of extraction produced an itinerant timber industry associated with high environmental impacts, including soil compaction, reduced canopy cover (<50% in comparison to unlogged forest), increasing fire risk, and altered biodiversity (Uhl and Vieira, 1989, Uhl and Kauffman, 1990, Veríssimo et al., 1992, Cochrane et al., 1999, Nepstad et al., 1999). This method of timber harvesting with higher environmental damage has been referred as “conventional logging” (or high-impact logging, HIL).
Alternatively, forest management has been advocated as a way of integrating the economic use of timber resources and the conservation of tropical forest (Johns, 1997). The appeal of higher prices in the international market for timber originating from certified timber operations has increased the interest of sawmill owners to adopt the use of reduced-impact logging (RIL) techniques in forest management plans. RIL techniques employed in Amazonia are described in Veríssimo et al. (1992) and Vidal et al. (1998). In Amazonia, although some studies have demonstrated the economic and environmental advantages of RIL practices (Barreto et al., 1997), the ability of these techniques to conserve the ecological integrity of the forests, especially their biodiversity, remains to be evaluated (Putz et al., 2000).
In this study, we evaluated the short-term effect of RIL on the native fauna of eastern Amazonia. We predicted that the animal assemblages from forests subject to reduced-impact logging would be more similar to the previously unlogged forests because these techniques were designed to reduce the impact on environmental characteristics of the forests. To test this hypothesis, we compared the richness, abundance and composition of assemblages of four different animal groups (ants, arachnids, birds and mammals) before and after RIL at three different sites in eastern Amazonia.
Section snippets
Study area
The study was carried out in forests managed by two certified timber companies (Cikel Brasil Verde SA, and Juruá Florestal LTDA) in Para state, Brazil. The sampling was conducted at three sites (Fig. 1): Fazenda Rio Capim (Cikel), in Paragominas (3°32′S, 48°49′W); Fazenda Santa Marta (3°01′S, 49°16′W), in Tailandia, and Fazenda Arataú (4°08′S, 49°57′W), in Novo Repartimento (both of the latter “Fazendas” belonging to Juruá company). All sites are certified by the FSC and have implemented
Results
A list of all taxa recorded, and overall richness for the three sites combined, is displayed in Table 1.
A total of 32 families of arachnids was recorded at the three forest sites. The most common families were Hahniidae, Ctenidae, Oonopidae, Ochyroceratidae and Salticidae (Fig. 2). Hahniidae and Ochyroceratidae are tiny spiders that build irregular webs. The others are hunting spiders, common in the litter. Most of the families found before logging was still present after logging at all sites.
Discussion
The short-term effect of reduced-impact logging (RIL) varied with taxa and, in some cases, with sites. Arachnids were the most sensitive group, with a response in richness, abundance and composition being detected after logging, while mammals showed no apparent effect. Changes in richness seemed to be the primary ecological response, with an increase in the number of invertebrate and bird species after logging. This is in accordance with the pattern expected immediately after disturbance (
Acknowledgements
We thank CIKEL Brasil Verde and Jurua Florestal Ltda for collaboration and logistic support; Andreia Pinto and Kemel Kalif for assistance during the field course; Alexandre Bonaldo, Jacques Delabie and Alexandre Aleixo for identification of arachnids, ants and birds, respectively. Laura Dietzsch made Fig. 1. Claudia Stickler and Michael Crossland reviewed the English version of the manuscript. This study was supported by grants from CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e
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2022, Land Use PolicyCitation Excerpt :Numerous studies have demonstrated the advantages of adopting SFM practices that can guarantee the long-term availability of natural resources, combined with conservation and socioeconomic development (Vidal et al., 1997, 1998, 2002; Uhl and Vieira, 1988; Uhl, 1989; Boltz et al., 2001; Holmes et al., 2002; Pereira et al., 2002; Feldpausch et al., 2005). It is still necessary, however, to critically evaluate the impact of SFM on the soil (Kleinschroth and Healey, 2017; DeArmond et al., 2019), the flora (Gaui et al., 2019) and fauna (Azevedo-Ramos et al., 2006), the forest structure and the remaining post-logging carbon stocks, as well as to incorporate such evaluations into the quantification of Brazilian contributions to greenhouse gas emissions (MCTIC, 2016). Aspects related to logging intensity, cutting cycle times, natural regeneration, growth dynamics, maintenance of forest structures, mortality, phytosociology, and silvicultural treatments are among the main tools for evaluating forest potentials and for defining management strategies, as they provide an understanding of the inherent short, medium, and long term effects of SFM on tropical forests (Francez et al., 2007; Gaui et al., 2019).
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2021, Forest Ecology and ManagementCitation Excerpt :Still, the result is surprising given the generally low harvest rates, the adoption of RIL techniques and the fact that concessions are in a federal protected area. Furthermore, it contrasts with a number of studies reporting negligible effects of RIL on medium- to large-sized mammals in tropical forests (Azevedo-Ramos et al., 2006; Laufer et al., 2015; Lhoest et al., 2020; Magintan et al., 2017; Roopsind et al., 2017; Sollmann et al., 2017; Tobler et al., 2018). This disagreement may be related to differences in study design, particularly the fact that most of the aforementioned studies only compared logged and unlogged sites, treating logging as a uniform land use as they lacked spatially accurate data on tree harvest.