Changes in bird communities throughout succession following fire and harvest in boreal forests of western North America: literature review and meta-analyses

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 1299-1318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Schieck ◽  
Samantha J Song
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Populus Tremuloides ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Forest Type ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Communities ◽  
Forest Birds ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Meta Analyses

Within boreal forests of western North America, the dominant large-scale natural disturbance is wildfire. Thus, harvesting that is as similar as possible to fire is expected to best maintain natural bird communities. We reviewed studies of birds (mainly grouse, woodpeckers, and songbirds) from boreal forests of western North America and conducted meta-analyses to compare the similarity of bird communities occurring postfire versus postharvest. We compared the bird communities at five seral stages and also summarized the effects of retaining large live trees at harvest. Bird communities immediately postharvest differed greatly from those postfire. Differences between disturbance types disappeared as the forest regenerated, and both disturbance types became dominated by relatively few bird species in 31- to 75-year-old forests. During the period 76–125 years postdisturbance, old-forest birds became present and bird species richness increased. However, the trajectory of forest succession during this period influenced bird communities; old aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), old mixedwood, and old white spruce (Picea glauca Moench (Voss)) forests all had different bird communities. Retention of large live trees in cutblocks resulted in their use by many old-forest birds, but results were not consistent among studies. Although most bird species had clear peaks in abundance in a specific forest type, no species with more than five detections was limited to a single forest type.

scholarly journals Using oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes to track the migratory movement of Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus) along Western Flyways of North America

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0226318
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Wommack ◽  
Lisa C. Marrack ◽  
Stefania Mambelli ◽  
Joshua M. Hull ◽  
Todd E. Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
North America ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Pacific Coast ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Migration Routes ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Accipiter Striatus ◽  
Hydrogen And Oxygen Isotope

The large-scale patterns of movement for the Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), a small forest hawk found throughout western North America, are largely unknown. However, based on field observations we set out to test the hypothesis that juvenile migratory A. striatus caught along two distinct migration routes on opposite sides of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of North America (Pacific Coast and Intermountain Migratory Flyways) come from geographically different natal populations. We applied stable isotope analysis of hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) of feathers, and large scale models of spatial isotopic variation (isoscapes) to formulate spatially explicit predictions of the origin of the migrant birds. Novel relationships were assessed between the measured hydrogen and oxygen isotope values of feathers from A. striatus museum specimens of known origin and the isoscape modeled hydrogen and oxygen isotope values of precipitation at those known locations. We used these relationships to predict the origin regions for birds migrating along the two flyways from the measured isotope values of migrant’s feathers and the associated hydrogen and oxygen isotopic composition of precipitation where these feathers were formed. The birds from the two migration routes had overlap in their natal/breeding origins and did not differentiate into fully separate migratory populations, with birds from the Pacific Coast Migratory Flyway showing broader natal geographic origins than those from the Intermountain Flyway. The methodology based on oxygen isotopes had, in general, less predictive power than the one based on hydrogen. There was broad agreement between the two isotope approaches in the geographic assignment of the origins of birds migrating along the Pacific Coast Flyway, but not for those migrating along the Intermountain Migratory Flyway. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for conservation efforts of A. striatus in western North America, and the use of combined hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope analysis to track the movement of birds of prey on continental scales.

On large-scale dynamics and community structure in forest birds: lessons from some eucalypt forests of southeastern Australia

1995 ◽  
Vol 350 (1334) ◽  
pp. 369-379 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Bird Communities ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Individual Bird ◽  
Southeastern Australia

Models of ecological communities, including coevolved patterns of resource use among sympatric species (for example, ‘resource partitioning’), are poor or inadequate representations of natural systems despite intense theoretical effort for many years. Some of these difficulties are due to a failure to recognize the necessary conditions for community patterns to develop, which are largely controlled by the dynamic characteristics of individual species. In continental bird communities — examples of which are considered here - these necessary conditions often will not be met owing to the mobility of most species. Here I document the degrees to which the large-scale dynamics (over hundreds of km) of individual bird species are expressed in community terms in five forest-habitat types throughout the year. These data demonstrate that continental bird communities are so dynamic that the conditions for the development of definite structure are unlikely to be met in either proximate or evolutionary time. The failure of community theories to account for and predict structure probably reflects too much concentration on mechanisms at inappropriate spatial scales.

Foraging behaviour of four avian species feeding on the same temporarily available prey

2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (9) ◽  
pp. 581-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.S.B. Houpt ◽  
A.P.H. Bose ◽  
T. Warriner ◽  
N.A.W. Brown ◽  
J.S. Quinn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bald Eagle ◽  
Haliaeetus Leucocephalus ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Bald Eagles ◽  
Tidal Cycles ◽  
Plainfin Midshipman

Low tide events provide terrestrial predators with ephemeral, but predictable and abundant sources of prey. Understanding the relationships between tidal cycles, prey availability, and predator abundances is vital to characterizing the ecological relationship between terrestrial predators and their marine prey. Here, we describe the foraging tactics of four common bird species in western North America — Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766)), Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias Linnaeus, 1758), Glaucous-winged Gulls (Larus glaucescens J.F. Naumann, 1840), and Northwestern Crows (Corvus caurinus S.F. Baird, 1858) — feeding on the same transiently accessible fish species, the plainfin midshipman (Porichthys notatus Girard, 1854). We conducted avian predator surveys at breeding beaches of plainfin midshipman across multiple years and sites. Our census data showed that Bald Eagle and Great Blue Heron abundances were higher when the tides were receding than incoming at Ladysmith Harbour, British Columbia, Canada, but the opposite trend was found for total predator abundance at a second site in Dabob Bay, Washington, USA. Glaucous-winged Gull abundance decreased over the course of the plainfin midshipman breeding season (April–July), whereas the abundances of the other three species remained stable. Our data suggest that the foraging activities of birds in the intertidal zones of western North America are linked with the tidal cycles, corresponding to periods of high prey vulnerability.

scholarly journals Changes toward Earlier Streamflow Timing across Western North America

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 1136-1155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris T. Stewart ◽  
Daniel R. Cayan ◽  
Michael D. Dettinger
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Center Of Mass ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Climate Fluctuations ◽  
Climate Indicators ◽  
Decadal Scale ◽  
Streamflow Timing

Abstract The highly variable timing of streamflow in snowmelt-dominated basins across western North America is an important consequence, and indicator, of climate fluctuations. Changes in the timing of snowmelt-derived streamflow from 1948 to 2002 were investigated in a network of 302 western North America gauges by examining the center of mass for flow, spring pulse onset dates, and seasonal fractional flows through trend and principal component analyses. Statistical analysis of the streamflow timing measures with Pacific climate indicators identified local and key large-scale processes that govern the regionally coherent parts of the changes and their relative importance. Widespread and regionally coherent trends toward earlier onsets of springtime snowmelt and streamflow have taken place across most of western North America, affecting an area that is much larger than previously recognized. These timing changes have resulted in increasing fractions of annual flow occurring earlier in the water year by 1–4 weeks. The immediate (or proximal) forcings for the spatially coherent parts of the year-to-year fluctuations and longer-term trends of streamflow timing have been higher winter and spring temperatures. Although these temperature changes are partly controlled by the decadal-scale Pacific climate mode [Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO)], a separate and significant part of the variance is associated with a springtime warming trend that spans the PDO phases.

scholarly journals Using oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes to track the migratory movement of Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus) along Western Flyways of North America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Wommack ◽  
Lisa C. Marrack ◽  
Stefania Mambelli ◽  
Joshua M. Hull ◽  
Todd E. Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
North America ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Pacific Coast ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Migration Routes ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Accipiter Striatus ◽  
Hydrogen And Oxygen Isotope

AbstractThe large-scale patterns of movement for the Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), a small forest hawk found throughout western North America, are largely unknown. However, based on field observations we set out to test the hypothesis that juvenile migratory A. striatus caught along two distinct migration routes on opposite sides of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of North America (Pacific Coast and Intermountain Migratory Flyways) come from geographically different natal populations. We applied stable isotope analysis of hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) of feathers, and large scale models of spatial isotopic variation (isoscapes) to formulate spatially explicit predictions of the origin of the migrant birds. Novel relationships were assessed between the measured hydrogen and oxygen isotope values of feathers from A. striatus museum specimens of known origin and the isoscape modeled hydrogen and oxygen isotope values of precipitation at those known locations. We used these relationships to predict the origin regions for birds migrating along the two flyways from the measured isotope values of migrant’s feathers and the associated hydrogen and oxygen isotopic composition of precipitation where these feathers were formed. The birds from the two migration routes had overlap in their natal/breeding origins and did not differentiate into fully separate migratory populations, with birds from the Pacific Coast Migratory Flyway showing broader natal geographic origins then those from the Intermountain Flyway. The methodology based on oxygen isotopes had, in general, less predictive power than the one based on hydrogen. There was broad agreement between the two isotope approaches in the geographic assignment of the origins of birds migrating along the Pacific Coast Flyway, but not for those migrating along the Intermountain Migratory Flyway. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for conservation efforts of A. striatus in western North America, and the use of combined hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope analysis to track the movement of birds of prey on continental scales.

scholarly journals Breeding Bird Communities in a Naturally Fragemented Forest Ecosystem in Grand Teton National Park

1998 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 37-37
Author(s):  
Gregory Schrott
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
National Park ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Bird Communities ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
Natural Processes

This project examined the bird species breeding in the morainal forests on the valley floor in Grand Teton National Park. These forests are very patchily distributed and range in size from less than 1 hectare to over 700 hectares, allowing for a unique opportunity to study the responses of the local bird species to a forest system that has been fragmented for centuries through natural processes. This information can be useful for predicting the potential long-term impacts of human-caused forest fragmentation on bird populations in western North America. Until quite recently very little was known of the tolerances of western forest bird species to habitat fragmentation and this project could represent an important step towards understanding their needs in this regard.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document