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Wildwood/Kraemer Lake County Park Observational Study: The Effects Of Fragmentation On Old-Growth Forest Species, Rhonda H. Zimmerman

Culminating Projects in Biology

Habitat fragmentation generates forest fragments with increased ratio of "edge". This "edge effect" alters the natural community. Old growth forests support deep forest communities which rely on the closed canopy for survival, often indicators of healthy old growth communities. Putative old growth forest patches were identified in Wildwood Park and St. John’s Arboretum/University. One study objective was to collect baseline data on flora and fauna in Wildwood to confirm the presence of old-growth patches. The main ecological goal of the study was to determine if bird and plant communities exhibited patterns consistent with the operating assumption of 50 acre old-growth …

Variation In Habitat Thresholds: An Analysis Of Minimum Habitat Requirements Of North American Breeding Birds, Yntze Van Der Hoek

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Many species show dramatic changes in population extinction or persistence probability at particular habitat amounts. These `extinction thresholds' could be translated to conservation targets, under the condition that we can derive generalities. I investigated the level of variation in landscape-level habitat thresholds for a suite of North American, forest-associated, breeding birds. Records from Breeding Bird Atlases and the availability of remotely-sensed land cover data allowed me to compare habitat thresholds for 25 species across the states of Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. I show that variation in thresholds is considerable (Chapter II, III), as thresholds range from …

Changes In Spring Arrival And Fall Departure Dates Of Migratory Birds As An Indication Of Local Climate Change: A Phenological Study Of New York State's Capital Region Using Citizen Science, Olivia C. Townsend

Honors Theses

Climate change is becoming an increasingly important topic of scientific research, and studies commonly analyze biological indicators. Migratory birds are responsive to environmental changes because life cycles depend on finding proper seasonal locations. eBird is a citizen science database launched by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society in 2002, and this study focused on eBird data to analyze migratory shifts over the past two decades for the Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca), Northern Pintail (Anas acuta), Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola), Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula), Common Merganser (Mergus merganser), Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator), Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), Snow Goose (Chen …

An Avian Survey Conducted At Five Water Sources Within The Northern Chihuahuan Desert On Indio Mountains Research Station, Texas, Geoffrey Hugh Wiseman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study was to conduct an avian survey of five water sources (four ephemeral former cattle tanks and one perennial spring), determine how many species inhabit or use Indio Mountains Research Station, and show a hierarchal similarity between the survey sites. This survey was conducted in a Chihuahuan Desert scrub landscape on Indio Mountains Research Station (IMRS) in Hudspeth County, Texas. There have been no previous formal studies of the avifauna at IMRS. All species accounts or sightings have been from casual sightings.

Eighty-five avian species were recorded during this project bringing the total of avian species …