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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Do The Size And Landscape Context Of Forest Openings Influence The Abundance And Breeding Success Of Shrubland Songbirds In Southern New England?, Robert A. Askins, Benjamin Zuckerberg, Leah Novak
Do The Size And Landscape Context Of Forest Openings Influence The Abundance And Breeding Success Of Shrubland Songbirds In Southern New England?, Robert A. Askins, Benjamin Zuckerberg, Leah Novak
Biology Faculty Publications
Early successional birds have declined in the northeastern United States due to the regeneration of forest on abandoned farm fields and the suppression of natural disturbances that once provided appropriate habitat. These species have become increasingly dependent on early successional habitats generated by such activities as timber harvesting. Recent approaches of timber harvesting, which range from single-tree harvesting to clearcutting, create forest openings of different sizes and configurations embedded in landscapes with different land use patterns. To assess the importance of forest openings created by timber harvesting for shrubland birds, we surveyed birds on 50m radius plots in 34 harvest …
Conservation Of Grassland Birds In North America: Understanding Ecological Processes In Different Regions, Robert A. Askins, Felipe Chávez-Ramírez, Brenda C. Dale, Carola A. Haas, James R. Herkert, Fritz L. Knopf, Peter D. Vickery
Conservation Of Grassland Birds In North America: Understanding Ecological Processes In Different Regions, Robert A. Askins, Felipe Chávez-Ramírez, Brenda C. Dale, Carola A. Haas, James R. Herkert, Fritz L. Knopf, Peter D. Vickery
Biology Faculty Publications
Many species of birds that depend on grassland or savanna habitats have shown substantial overall population declines in North America. To understand the causes of these declines, we examined the habitat requirements of birds in six types of grassland in different regions of the continent. Open habitats were originally maintained by ecological drivers (continual and pervasive ecological processes) such as drought, grazing, and fire in tallgrass prairie, mixed-grass prairie, shortgrass prairie, desert grassland, and longleaf pine savanna. By contrast, grasslands were created by occasional disturbances (e.g., fires or beaver [Castor canadensis] activity) in much of northeastern North America. The relative …