The Role of the Landscape Matrix in Structuring Avian Communities

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

This research would examine the importance of the landscape matrix (the "background" within which habitat patches and corridors are embedded) in mediating avian communities by affecting local ecological processes. The focus would be on urbanizing landscapes, where ecologists have long recognized urban-associated changes in avian communities. Using avian communities in riparian forests as a study system, this research aims to identify how the landscape matrix mediates ecological mechanisms structuring avian communities, demography of two model species, and behavioral decision rules governing habitat selection. More fundamentally, the principal question addressed is: Are changes in bird communities along a rural-urban gradient more strongly linked to demographic or behavioral processes? Three years of preliminary research in riparian forests of central Ohio indicate that amount of urban development within the landscape matrix is closely associated with avian community structure and that rates of nest depredation increase as the matrix becomes urbanized. For comparison, the focus would be on two model species (Northern Cardinal and Acadian Flycatcher), which are representative of urban adapters and urban avoiders, respectively. Birds would be surveyed using mist nets, territories mapped, and nests would be monitored to estimate basic demographic (e.g., clutch size, recruitment, survival, and immigration) and behavioral (e.g., site fidelity in breeding and non-breeding seasons, settlement patterns, arrival date) parameters. Energetic factors that may affect demography (e.g., fat score, weight, wing cord collected while banding birds), nestling provisioning rates, activity budgets, and foraging behavior would also be measured.