Bird community responses to a gradient of site preparation intensities in pine plantations in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina

Although intensively managed pine forests are common in the southeastern US, few studies describe how combinations of mechanical (MSP) and chemical site preparation (CSP) and herbaceous weed control (HWC) techniques affect bird communities that use early successional habitats within young pine forests. Therefore, we examined effects of six treatments of increasing management intensity via combinations of MSP (strip-shear and wide spacing or roller chop and narrow spacing) and CSP (application or no application) treatments with banded or broadcast HWC on bird communities in six loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) plantations in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina, USA, for 8years following site preparation. Wide pine spacing and strip-shear MSP increased bird abundance and species richness over narrow spacing and chopped MSP for 6years after planting. Chemical SP reduced bird abundance in year 2, increased bird abundance in year 6, had no effect on abundance after year 7, and did not affect species richness in any year. Total bird abundance and species richness were similar between banded and broadcast HWC. Site preparation and HWC had no effect on bird diversity and bird communities were most similar in treatments of similar intensity. Site preparation and HWC had few or no effects on birds based upon migratory status, habitat association, or conservation value. The addition of chemical site preparation or HWC had little effect on birds beyond pine spacing, and bird abundance was not proportional to management intensity. Although we observed treatment effects, all treatments provided habitat used by a variety of bird species, and pine plantations may play an increasingly important role in bird conservation as forests become fragmented and converted to other land uses and as natural processes that create early successional habitat, such as fire, are suppressed.