啄木鳥喜歡在野火燒過的森林里生活

啄木鳥喜歡在野火燒過的森林里生活

The black-backed woodpecker thrives in the charred remains of forests left by wildfires.

黑背啄木鳥在野火留下的燒焦的森林中茁壯成長。

The birds live in the western U.S., gravitating toward recently burned forests. There, they forage on the larvae of wood-boring beetles that take over dead and dying trees after fires and make nests in the cavities of burned trees.

這些鳥生活在美國西部，被最近燒毀的森林所吸引。在那里，它們以蛀木甲蟲的幼蟲為食，這些蛀木甲蟲會在火災后接管死去和垂死的樹木，并在燒毀的樹洞里筑巢。

Although these woodpeckers may not seem selective about where they put down roots, they are, in fact, very picky. They prefer to build their homes near the edges of burned patches, but these edges are getting more difficult to find as wildfires become larger and more extreme.

雖然這些啄木鳥對于它們的根在哪里似乎沒有選擇性，但事實上，它們非常挑剔。他們更喜歡把房子建在被燒毀區(qū)域的邊緣，但隨著野火變得越來越大、越來越極端，這些邊緣越來越難找到。

Photo: FotoRequest/Shutterstock

Researchers recently studied black-backed woodpeckers and how they selected nest sites in burned forests in northern California. They located and monitored more than 100 nests over eight years and found that the birds strongly preferred to make their homes in burned-out stands of trees. But they chose the edges that were usually within 550 yards (500 meters) of areas with living trees.

研究人員最近研究了黑背啄木鳥，以及它們?nèi)绾卧诩永Ｄ醽啽辈勘粺龤У纳种羞x擇巢穴。他們在8年的時間里對100多個鳥巢進行了定位和監(jiān)測，發(fā)現(xiàn)這些鳥強烈傾向于在燒毀的樹林中安家。但他們選擇的邊緣通常是在550碼(500米)以內(nèi)的區(qū)域有活的樹木。

"We didn't expect to find these woodpeckers nesting so close to edges," says study co-author Andrew Stillman, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Connecticut, in a news release. Stillman worked with a research team from The Institute for Bird Populations and the U.S. Forest Service.

“我們沒想到這些啄木鳥會在如此靠近邊緣的地方筑巢，”該研究的合著者、康涅狄格大學博士生安德魯•斯蒂爾曼在一份新聞稿中說。斯蒂爾曼與鳥類種群研究所和美國林業(yè)局的一個研究小組合作。

The researchers believe the nearby living trees give young fledglings a safe space to hide from predators while adults are away.

研究人員認為，附近的活樹為幼鳥提供了一個安全的空間，讓它們在成年鳥離開時躲避捕食者。

"If you're a fledgling woodpecker, the open and exposed severely burned forests are a dangerous place," Stillman told Earther. "However, these areas also have the most food. When nests occur near edges, fledglings can stay safe in the live trees while adults forage in dead trees nearby."

斯蒂爾曼對Earther說:“如果你是一只剛出生的啄木鳥，那么那些裸露在外、被嚴重燒毀的森林就是一個危險的地方。然而，這些地區(qū)也有最多的食物。當鳥巢靠近邊緣時，幼鳥可以安全地呆在活樹上，而成年鳥則在附近的死樹上覓食。”

Maybe even more important, the findings, published in the journal The Condor: Ornithological Applications, also found that these woodpeckers need access to a variety of habitats after a fire. This "pyrodiversity" includes burned patches of different ages, sizes and severity.

或許更重要的是，發(fā)表在《禿鷹:鳥類學應用》雜志上的研究結(jié)果還發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些啄木鳥在火災后需要進入多種棲息地。這種“熱多樣性”包括不同年齡、大小和嚴重程度的燒傷斑塊。

But climate change is spurring an increase in mega-fires that burn faster and hotter and more uniformly. These fires leave fewer of the edges where black-backed woodpeckers prefer to nest.

但是，氣候變化正刺激著大火的增加，這些大火燃燒得更快、更熱、更均勻。這些火災使得黑背啄木鳥喜歡筑巢的邊緣更少。

"The thing about pyrodiversity is that we expect it to decrease," says Dr. Morgan Tingley of the University of Connecticut and co-author of the paper. "Every year we see more 'mega-fires,' and these fires are quite homogenous in their structure, leading to low pyrodiversity. So even though the future is expected to hold more fire in western forests, the outlook may not even be good for fire-loving species."

康涅狄格大學的摩根·廷利博士是這篇論文的作者之一。“每年我們都會看到更多的‘特大火災’，這些火災在結(jié)構(gòu)上非常相似，導致火災的多樣性很低。因此，盡管未來西部森林可能會發(fā)生更多火災，但對喜歡火的物種來說，前景可能并不樂觀。”