Can bird perches promote seed dispersal and accelerate natural forest regeneration?
“Nature can heal itself”, but what if we can speed it up? When left alone, an old farmland will have trees growing and it may become a forest again eventually. Based on this principle, Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) is a reforestation strategy involving the reduction of disturbances and promoting seed input at the degraded land. Perches can be used to attract fruit-eating birds that can help spread tree seeds and speed up the natural regeneration of the forest.
We aim to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of previous studies and observations to assess whether artificial and natural perches can increase seed dispersal and/or seedling growth on degraded areas. The results will synthesize available evidence on the topic, identify knowledge gaps we need filling to upscale the strategy, and inform their use in concert with other ANR strategies. The results of the meta study are expected to be available in 2024.
We are looking for studies that compare the abundance and/or richness of seed rain and seedling growth between areas with perch and areas without perch. The site must be adjacent to a forest and birds are the main dispersers of interest. If you have a study that fits this criteria, please get in touch and send it to j.gan4@newcastle.ac.uk. Thank you!
More details here: https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/marionpfeifer/birds-and-seeds/
Read the published protocol here: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-023-00308-z
Can bird perches promote seed dispersal and accelerate natural forest regeneration? “Nature can heal itself”, but what if we can speed it up? When left alone, an old farmland will have trees growing and it may become a forest again eventually. Based on this principle, Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) is a reforestation strategy involving the reduction of disturbances and promoting seed input at the degraded land. Perches can be used to attract fruit-eating birds that can help spread tree seeds and speed up the natural regeneration of the forest. We aim to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of previous studies and observations to assess whether artificial and natural perches can increase seed dispersal and/or seedling growth on degraded areas. The results will synthesize available evidence on the topic, identify knowledge gaps we need filling to upscale the strategy, and inform their use in concert with other ANR strategies. The results of the meta study are expected to be available in 2024. We are looking for studies that compare the abundance and/or richness of seed rain and seedling growth between areas with perch and areas without perch. The site must be adjacent to a forest and birds are the main dispersers of interest. If you have a study that fits this criteria, please get in touch and send it to j.gan4@newcastle.ac.uk. Thank you! More details here: https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/marionpfeifer/birds-and-seeds/ Read the published protocol here: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-023-00308-z