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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2008
- Title: Which landscape variables are suitable predictors for presence of cavity-nesting birds in human-occupied landscapes?
- Author: Anastasia Yarbrough (University of Vermont (UVM))
- Abstract:
Most habitat studies for cavity-nesting birds have focused primarily on individual cavities and within a radius of approximately 25 meters of individual nesting trees. By contrast, the habitat selection literature has emphasized that birds make habitat choices at multiple spatio-temporal scales. Many recent studies have described and modeled the influence of landscape variables on habitat choice in a variety of bird species. However, few studies have considered the possibly of landscape variables contributing to choices of cavity-nesting birds. The objectives of this study are to explore associations between landscape variables and presence of nests for X cavity-nesting bird species. . Nest searching focused on 25 1-km plots along roads of varying traffic density roughly following an urban gradient. There are approximately 62 nests located and identified throughout the plots, varying by bird species occupancy and land cover characteristics. I acquired land cover, canopy cover, and impervious surface multi-resolution land cover (MRLC) data through the National Land Cover database and elevation layer from MASS GIS. I analyzed and described the data using ArcGIS and simple statistics in Microsoft Excel. The primary goal of this exploratory analysis is to provide a preliminary basis to develop a predictive model of nesting densities. I expect for current and future results of this project to contribute to the quest for understanding cavity-nesting bird nesting behavior and success in dynamic human-occupied landscapes.
- Research Category: Biodiversity Studies; Conservation and Management; Regional Studies
