Feathering the Scene: The Effects of Ecological Restoration on Birds and the Role Birds Play in Evaluating Restoration Outcomes

摘要

Ecological restoration is a promising strategy to reverse biodiversity loss from habitat degradation worldwide. Historically,animals have received little attention within restoration activities, but in the last decade birds have been widely incorporatedinto restoration ecology research. Increasing our knowledge regarding birds within the restoration process should aid thedevelopment of novel approaches to perform restoration activities that consider all the components of ecosystems. Inthis review, we compile the literature related to birds and the restoration process, extract its general trends, summarizerestoration recommendations, identify knowledge gaps, and suggest areas for future research. We classified the reviewedliterature into 4 themes: 1) ecological dynamics; 2) habitat restoration for bird conservation; 3) birds as bioindicatorsof restoration outcomes; and 4) birds as guides for the restoration process. In general, research from temperate zoneshas been performed mainly within the United States (67% of reviewed literature), and our understanding of tropicalecosystems is very incomplete. The majority of reviewed literature (64.8%) analyzed the ornithological component ofthe restoration process from an ecological dynamics approach. Based on our findings, we suggest that particular prop-erties of restoration activities (e.g., size of restored sites, habitat type, characteristics of contiguous habitats) should becontemplated when considering birds within the restoration context.