Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 35(2) 1992

Issue:

VOL 35(2) 1992

Keywords:

Birds, censuses, long-term research, changes in bird communities, industrial pollution, Ojców National Park, South Poland

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Formation of bird communities in the forest sample plots undergoing the action of industrial pollution in the Ojców National Park

• Teresa TOMEK

Abstract:

In 1973-1990 counts of birds were carried out in two permanent sample plots in the territory of the Ojców National Park, undergoing degradation owing to the action of industrial pollution: in fresh oak-pine forest Pino-Quercetum, where the process of remodelling of the stand was under way (Plot I) and in a more stable deciduous forest Tilio-Carpinetum and Pino-Quercetum var. Fagus silvatica (Plot II). The numbers of breeding species ranged from 18 to 25 (x = 21.4, SD = ± 2.13 , v = 9.95) in the oak-pine forest and from 15 to 23 (x = 18.41, SD = ± l.97, v =10.70) in the deciduous forest. In the deciduous stand the density of nesting birds was changing to a relatively small extent (x = 76.82 pairs/10 ha, SD = ± 5.73, v = 7.46 ), whereas in the withering pine forest it fell by about one-third in 1973-1978 and from 130-107 to a level of 61-81 (x = 70.42, SD = ± 6.68, v = 9.48 ) in 1979-1990. Considerably larger structural changes brought about by the degradation of the stand owing to industrial pollution have been found in the bird community of the oak-pine forest than in that of the deciduous forest.