啄木鸟喜欢在野火烧过的森林里生活

啄木鸟喜欢在野火烧过的森林里生活

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

黑背啄木鸟在野火留下的烧焦的森林中茁壮成长。

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.

这些鸟生活在美国西部，被最近烧毁的森林所吸引。在那里，它们以蛀木甲虫的幼虫为食，这些蛀木甲虫会在火灾后接管死去和垂死的树木，并在烧毁的树洞里筑巢。

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.

虽然这些啄木鸟对于它们的根在哪里似乎没有选择性，但事实上，它们非常挑剔。他们更喜欢把房子建在被烧毁区域的边缘，但随着野火变得越来越大、越来越极端，这些边缘越来越难找到。

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.

研究人员最近研究了黑背啄木鸟，以及它们如何在加利福尼亚北部被烧毁的森林中选择巢穴。他们在8年的时间里对100多个鸟巢进行了定位和监测，发现这些鸟强烈倾向于在烧毁的树林中安家。但他们选择的边缘通常是在550码(500米)以内的区域有活的树木。

"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.

“我们没想到这些啄木鸟会在如此靠近边缘的地方筑巢，”该研究的合著者、康涅狄格大学博士生安德鲁•斯蒂尔曼在一份新闻稿中说。斯蒂尔曼与鸟类种群研究所和美国林业局的一个研究小组合作。

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

研究人员认为，附近的活树为幼鸟提供了一个安全的空间，让它们在成年鸟离开时躲避捕食者。

"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."

斯蒂尔曼对Earther说:“如果你是一只刚出生的啄木鸟，那么那些裸露在外、被严重烧毁的森林就是一个危险的地方。然而，这些地区也有最多的食物。当鸟巢靠近边缘时，幼鸟可以安全地呆在活树上，而成年鸟则在附近的死树上觅食。”

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.

或许更重要的是，发表在《秃鹰:鸟类学应用》杂志上的研究结果还发现，这些啄木鸟在火灾后需要进入多种栖息地。这种“热多样性”包括不同年龄、大小和严重程度的烧伤斑块。

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，气候变化正刺激着大火的增加，这些大火燃烧得更快、更热、更均匀。这些火灾使得黑背啄木鸟喜欢筑巢的边缘更少。

"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."

康涅狄格大学的摩根·廷利博士是这篇论文的作者之一。“每年我们都会看到更多的‘特大火灾’，这些火灾在结构上非常相似，导致火灾的多样性很低。因此，尽管未来西部森林可能会发生更多火灾，但对喜欢火的物种来说，前景可能并不乐观。”