High‐Integrity Forests Are Critical for Forest Specialist Birds

Abstract

Aim Efforts to retain and restore forest integrity—the degree to which a forest's structure and function are not modified by humans—are increasingly underpinning global biodiversity conservation efforts. However, there is still much uncertainty around how species respond to changes in forest integrity. Geographically variable responses would have consequences for conservation planning assessments and targeted conservation action. Our goal was to quantify the relationship between forest integrity and bird diversity. Location Global; 98 bioregions. Time Period 2017–2020. Major Taxa Studied Birds. Methods By integrating global‐scale spatially explicit forest landscape integrity data with a citizen science bird dataset, we provide the first empirical assessment of the relationship between forest integrity and bird diversity. Results We found that both species richness and abundance of forest specialists had a positive association with integrity. However, the relationship between forest integrity and bird diversity varied across bioregions, with bioregions at low latitudes tending to have more positive relationships between forest integrity and species richness. Of the 74 bioregions assessed, 64% had more than half of their species favouring high integrity forests. Main Conclusions These results support calls for the targeted protection of the world's remaining high‐integrity forests but also showcase that consideration must be given to restoring forest integrity where possible.

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