STABLE ENVIRONMENTS AND FRAGILE COMMUNITIES - DOES HISTORY DETERMINE THE RESILIENCE OF AVIAN RAIN-FOREST COMMUNITIES TO HABITAT DEGRADATION

By comparing results from studies on the response of bird communities to selective logging and fragmentation of tropical moist forest and as sessing whether different local faunas are differently affected, this paper examines whether communities in areas of unstable ecoclimatic hi stories may be more robust to change than those which evolved in place s which were paleoecologically stable. Studies on selective logging in Asia and forest fragmentation in Latin America do not confidently dem onstrate differences in the resilience of bird communities between sta ble and unstable areas. However, studies of selective logging and fore st fragmentation in Africa give much stronger evidence for differences in fragility of local avifaunas, which correspond to what would be pr edicted from the paleoecological stability. Unfortunately, the current ly available studies do not provide a basis for rigorous testing of th e hypothesis. Comparison is constrained by lack of suitable controls, incomparable census methods, inadequate description of the disturbance regimes, and differences in the intensity of disturbance. It is sugge sted that well coordinated studies in many different areas, with good and standardized documentation of many habitat variables, may have con siderable importance.