scholarly journals Identifying Avian Community Response to Sagebrush Vegetation Restoration in Grand Teton National Park

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 36-45
Author(s):  
Tracey Johnson ◽  
Anna Chalfoun
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Grassland Birds ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Sagebrush Steppe ◽  
Native Grasses ◽  
Shrub Cover ◽  
Bare Ground ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park

Approximately 50-60% of native sagebrush steppe has been lost to non-native grasses, which has contributed to population decreases for sagebrush-associated songbirds. Removal of non-native grasses and restoration treatments may return structure and function of sagebrush steppe and ultimately benefit songbirds, but their responses must be evaluated. To determine breeding songbird community responses to sagebrush restoration treatments, in 2013 we conducted bird surveys at restored plots at the Kelly Hayfields restoration area in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. We compared bird communities and vegetation characteristics in restored plots to plots that were unrestored and to areas of native sagebrush steppe as starting and endpoints for restoration, respectively. Unrestored plots were dominated by non-native grasses; restored plots were dominated by forbs and bare ground and had very little shrub cover (< 0.1%). Native sagebrush plots were dominated by shrubs and native bunchgrasses. Bird community composition was distinct among the three types of plots. Abundance of grassland birds was highest in unrestored plots, and was positively related to cover of non-native grass and litter depth. Abundance of shrubland birds was highest in native sagebrush, and was positively associated with shrub cover. There were very few detections of birds in restored plots, and most species were negatively associated with the high levels of bare ground that characterized these plots. Restored areas may initially (≤5 yrs) provide little breeding bird habitat, which should be accounted for when determining schedules of restoration treatments at Kelly Hayfields.

scholarly journals Effects of sagebrush restoration on plant and bird communities in Grand Teton National Park

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 65-76
Author(s):  
Anna D. Chalfoun ◽  
Tracey N. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Grassland Birds ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Sagebrush Steppe ◽  
Shrub Cover ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Native Grasslands ◽  
Time Resource

Approximately half of sagebrush steppe range-wide has been converted to non-native grasslands, which has contributed to population declines of sagebrush-associated songbirds.  Removal of non-native grasses and restoration treatments are time-, resource- and energy-intensive, but could lead to the return of functional habitat for sagebrush wildlife. The extent to which restoration efforts repair the structure and functionality of sagebrush steppe for different types of wildlife, however, remains largely untested. To determine breeding songbird community responses to sagebrush restoration treatments, we are conducting a longitudinal study with sampling every 5 years within restoration units at different stages of restoration in the Kelly Hayfields restoration area in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Thus far, in 2013 and 2018 we compared bird and plant communities in unrestored (largely smooth brome [Bromus inermis]) units to those in various stages of restoration treatments, and to areas of native sagebrush. The sagebrush plots will serve as desired comparators for the endpoints of restoration efforts. The in-progress and recently replanted units were either dominated by bare ground (following herbicidal application) or native forbs with very little shrub cover (< 0.1%).  Native sagebrush units were dominated by shrubs and native bunchgrasses.  Bird community composition was distinct among the different unit types.  Abundance of grassland birds was highest in unrestored units, whereas the abundance of shrubland birds was highest in native sagebrush and positively associated with shrub cover.  There were very few detections of birds in recently re-seeded units. Restored areas may initially provide little breeding bird habitat, especially prior to the establishment of native bunch grasses and a mature shrub layer. Plant and bird sampling efforts will continue every five years to document how plant and bird assemblages shift over time in response to restoration efforts.   Featured photo by Matt Lavin on Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/fh7UJz

scholarly journals The Breeding Bird Community of a Primaeval Temperate Forest (Białowieża National Park, Poland) at the End of the 20thCentury

2002 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Wesołowski ◽  
Ludwik Tomiałojć ◽  
Cezary Mitrus ◽  
Patryk Rowiński ◽  
Dorota Czeszczewik
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Temperate Forest ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Białowieża National Park

scholarly journals Breeding Bird Community of a Primeval Temperate Forest (Białowieża National Park, Poland) at the Beginning of the 21stCentury

2006 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Wesołowski ◽  
Patryk Rowiński ◽  
Cezary Mitrus ◽  
Dorota Czeszczewik
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Temperate Forest ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Białowieża National Park

scholarly journals Monitoring Breeding Bird Populations in Grand Teton National Park

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 35-38
Author(s):  
Martin Cody
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Subalpine Fir ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
Breeding Populations ◽  
Jackson Hole

This report covers year 2 of a three year project, 1995-1997 inclusive, to instigate a permanent program of monitoring landbird species composition and densities in a variety of representative habitats within Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). Habitats range from grassland and sagebrush on the valley floor of Jackson Hole (around 1900 m) through a range of scrub, woodland, and tall foothill forest vegetation types to montane sites of subalpine fir and tundra (ca. 3000 m). The monitoring program is intended to provide data on year-to-year fluctuations in breeding bird species and densities, and document longer-term changes (if any) in the local avifauna of resident and migratory species. The data base will document variability in size of breeding populations among years, local shifts in distribution and abundance over habitat types, and potentially form an information source on which management and conservation decisions might be based.

scholarly journals Distribution and Body Size Diverstiy of Emberizine Sparrows in Grand Teton National Park

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 17-21
Author(s):  
Martin Cody
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Entire Range ◽  
National Park ◽  
Breeding Birds ◽  
Bird Communities ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Monitoring Effort ◽  
Field Workers ◽  
Census Record

Over the last decade or so, we have monitored breeding bird densities over the entire range of habitats within GTNP, from grasslands and sagebrush to scrub, woodland , and forest. Many field workers, including park scientists, have contributed to the monitoring efforts. In all, there are 30 established monitoring sites, and each has been visited on average in two out of three years since 1995. Some sites, however, have been censused yearly, and on some of these the census record extends back for several decades. The monitoring work provides a rather complete assessment of the park's breeding bird communities, i.e. species over habitats among years, and to date some 160 species have been recorded in the monitoring effort, all but a handful of which are breeding birds. This report addresses specifically one prominent group of breeding birds, the emberizine sparrows and buntings.

scholarly journals Monitoring Breeding Bird Populations in Grand Teton National Park: 1995-1997

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Martin Cody ◽  
Stephen Cain
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Season ◽  
National Park ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Breeding Habitat ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
The Impact

In summer 1997 our NPS-funded project # CA-1460-5-0010, covering a 3-y period from summer 1995 through summer 1997, was completed. The immediate goals of the project were to instigate a system for monitoring the densities of breeding bird species, by establishment of flxed sites as a basis for a long term monitoring plan and of census protocols that can detect changes of breeding species and their densities over successive years. The monitoring scheme is conducted largely within Grand Teton National Park (GTNP), but covers habitats and an avifauna representative of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) and the central-northern Rocky Mountains in general. The project emphasizes the need for long­term and on-going studies on breeding bird species and densities and their importance as a tool for evaluating the impact of both local and distant influences on breeding bird populations. For residents, species that remain all year in or near the breeding habitat, local effects include those operating on-site during the non-breeding season as well as during the breeding season. For migrant species, those that breed on-site but leave to spend the non-breeding season in other locations, often distant and usually of quite different habitat composition, there are both on-site influences on breeding population densities, such as inter-year changes in vegetation structure and productivity, and off-site or distant influences, including factors that affect over-wintering success in the non­breeding habitat and others that influence a successful transit between wintering and breeding grounds. The assessment of long-term trends in bird densities may be used as a form of bioassay of the state of the local environments. Information from such studies can provide region-wide indicators that, given a sufficiently comprehensive data base, can segregate local from distant influences on populations. Such indicators can be incorporated into management strategies to aid in determining which local strategies may be necessary (and feasible) to help maintain the biota.

scholarly journals Monitoring Migratory Bird Populations in Grand Teton National Park, Northern Rocky Mountains

1993 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 55-67
Author(s):  
Martin Cody ◽  
Steven Cain
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Migratory Bird ◽  
Routine Activity ◽  
Breeding Bird ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Monitoring Scheme ◽  
Bird Populations ◽  
Jackson Hole ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Land Bird

A scheme for long-term monitoring of breeding land bird populations in a wide variety of habitats representative of the northern Rockies and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) was initiated in summer 1993. It is projected that the monitoring scheme, when fully established and formalized, will become a routine activity in Grand Teton National Park, where a broad range of representative vegetation types is accessible within close geographic proximity. Sixteen study sites were established within the park in pristine habitat, from the Jackson Hole lowlands to subalpine and alpine sites, from meadow, sagebrush and marshland, through willow scrub, cottonwood and aspen woodlands, to lodgepole pine and spruce-fir forests. Some of the study sites have a long history of research on the breeding birds (see below). Census sites are standardized at 5 ha in size, and mapped in detail (topography, vegetation). The locations and accessibility of the study sites permit all to be regularly and repeatedly censused during the short (6-week) breeding season. Census schedules, timing, and methodological protocols are being established and refined, to provide for strictly controlled inter-site and inter-year comparisons in breeding bird populations, species composition, and densities. In view of the projected benefits to science and resource management of this monitoring scheme, the project hopefully will be continued and the data base further expanded in future years, with a larger range of study sites (24-36).

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.

Sphagnum Peatlands of Kosciuszko National Park in Relation to Altitude, Time and Disturbance

1999 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Clarke ◽  
A. R. H. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
National Park ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
Large Change ◽  
Shrub Cover ◽  
Bare Ground ◽  
Field Development ◽  
Trends Over Time ◽  
A Site

Sphagnum peatlands or bogs in the Kosciuszko National Park ranging from montane to alpine in elevation were sampled on two occasions spanning a maximum interval of 32 years. Data analysed for individual samples (305 quadrats) clustered into consistent microhabitat (hummock/hollow) groups and subalpine/alpine subgroups. Quadrat data were aggregated for sites (13 bogs) and analysed for floristic trends over time. Cluster and ordination analyses showed a large change in a single montane bog, but relatively little composition (presence/absence) change for the subalpine and alpine bogs. Analyses of dominant species in alpine (three) and subalpine bogs (three) showed some temporal trends in cover. There appears to be an increase in the cover of Sphagnum and a decrease in shrub cover in the subalpine bogs over the 20–32 years. Changes in shrub cover in undisturbed subalpine sites are attributed to shrub senescence and lack of recruitment. Changes at a site with intensive ski field development (Smiggin Holes) were analysed separately and compared with adjacent sites with no such development. Sphagnum cover had not increased at this site and shrub decline was pronounced. Bare ground and ruderal species increased in cover whereas 13 native species that were originally recorded in 1959 were not re-recorded in 1991. The detection of vegetation change in bogs through monitoring is important for adaptive management of vegetation under intensive use.

scholarly journals Population Densities and Community Structure of Birds in Jackson Hole: A Reassessment after 25 Years

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 144-147
Author(s):  
Martin Cody
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
National Park ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Population Densities ◽  
Habitat Types ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Jackson Hole ◽  
Study Sites

The award covers research expenses for a comparison of bird community structure--species, diversities, densities and distribution, and interspecific interactions--in two habitat types in Jackson Hole/Grand Teton-National Park, 1966-68 data versus 1991-92 data. In 1991 two study sites were re-established in the park, in sites as nearly overlapping as possible sites worked previously in 1966-68. The sites are a) willow scrub habitat, ca. 100 m west of Moran Junction; b) grass-sagebrush/forb meadow, ca. 200 m SE of Moran Junction.

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