Birds see the trees inside the forest: The potential impacts of changes in forest composition on songbirds during spring migration

Wood, Eric M.; Pidgeon, Anna M.; Liu, Feng; Mladenoff, David J.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2012.05.041

Cited by 35 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…A shift toward hard maple-basswood and away from oak-dominated timberland could have ecological ramifications, such as a decrease in songbird diversity (Rodewald and Abrams, 2002;Wood et al, 2012). However, further findings from interviews with natural resource professionals suggest that an increase in the extent of the hard maple-basswood forest type can be viewed by some as advantageous due to a generally strong timber market for sugar maple; yet a shift toward other species, such as elm and ash was considered undesirable (Knoot et al, 2010).…”

Section: Continued Shift To ''Other'' Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest change in the Driftless Area of the Midwest: From a preferred to undesirable future

Knoot

Shea

Schulte

et al. 2015

Forest Ecology and Management

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In the midwestern and eastern U.S., oaks (Quercus spp.) have been a dominant component of forests for at least the last 10,000 years, providing vital habitat for numerous wildlife and plant species that have adapted to oak forest conditions. However, the current state of these oak systems, in which there has been a general lack of successful oak regeneration and recruitment and an increase in the relative dominance of mesophytic species, may be nearing critical thresholds. If reached, restoring oak systems through natural regeneration and other methods, such as prescribed fire, may become especially challenging if not impossible. An understanding of spatial variation in oak dominance over time can inform and potentially improve the efficacy of intervention strategies. Using Public Land Survey and Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) inventories, we evaluated changes in the composition of timberland across ecoregional subsections in the Driftless Area of the Midwest at three time periods (pre-settlement 1800s, 1990s, and 2000s). We identified an overall decrease in oak dominance, and particularly dominance of the white oak (Quercus alba L., Q. macrocarpa Michx., and Q. bicolor Willd.) species group since the presettlement era, and an increase in other eastern soft hardwoods. Within the last 20 years, both the red oak (Q. rubra L., Q. ellipsoidalis E.J. Hill and Q. velutina Lam.) and white oak species groups decreased in dominance, with an increase in hard maple-basswood (A. saccharum Marsh., A. nigra L., and Tilia americana L.) species group dominance, indicating further mesophication of forests in the region. However, we found a notable decrease in hard maple-basswood relative dominance within the small diameter class across most of the regions within the last 10-20 years, with an increase in dominance of other, non-oak, species. Our findings complement qualitative evidence from interviews with natural resource professionals from the region and offer further information on the potential for forest conversion to ''undesirable'' forest conditions, as identified as a source of concern by some professionals. There was spatial variation in these trends, however, with some pronounced differences across adjacent state boundaries. The variation in forest change across state boundaries suggests the role of state-level socioeconomic and policy factors in affecting forest conditions, and thus the potential for a targeted and timely approach to promoting preferred pathways of change. RightsWorks produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted. a b s t r a c tIn the midwestern and eastern U.S., oaks (Quercus spp.) have been a dominant component of forests for at least the last 10,000 years, providing vital habitat for numerous wildlife and plant species that have adapted to oak forest conditions. However, the current state of these oak systems, in which there has been a general lack of successful oak reg...

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Section: Continued Shift To ''Other'' Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest change in the Driftless Area of the Midwest: From a preferred to undesirable future

Knoot

Shea

Schulte

et al. 2015

Forest Ecology and Management

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“…To address our first objective of exploring patterns of coincidence in arrival and foraging behavior of the wood-warbler species with tree phenology, we (1) determined the average proportion of trees in each tree phenology category; (2) relativized counts for each bird species by dividing the counts for a given Julian date by the number of observations totaled over both years; (3) calculated the total foraging attacks directed at leaves, flowers, and aerial maneuvers (hovers and sallies), scaled per minute, and relativized each attack type in turn, as described in #2; and (4) calculated the attack index, a measure of foraging success, which is defined as the ratio of total attacks over total search maneuvers, scaled per minute (Wood et al 2012). We relativized the attack index values as in #2.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Food availability and accessibility are two mechanisms that influence synchrony of spring migratory birds with tree phenophases at stopover locations (Graber and Graber 1983, McGrath et al 2008, Wood et al 2012. In an Illinois woodland, spring migratory wood-warbler habitat use was coincident with the abundance of Lepidoptera larvae (Graber and Graber 1983), and in an Arizona riparian area, spring migratory birds heavily predated arthropods that were abundant on flowering Honey Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa; McGrath et al 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although, the theoretical density shape of the Lepidoptera bean plot extends below 0, and the leaf damage plot extends below 0 and to 120, we note the spread of data does not exceed 0, for both beans, and 100 for the leaf damage bean. Color scheme indicates a significant difference between pairs, based on a Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for Lepidoptera density w 18 ¼ 73, p , 0.01 and leaf damage, w 18 ¼ 0, p , 0.01. v www.esajournals.org and the location of flowers on branches made them physically accessible (Wood et al 2012). Taken together, synchronization of migratory bird arrival at stopover sites with peak food abundance and accessibility likely benefits refueling rates (Graber and Graber 1983) and ultimately positively affects migration success (Moore and Kerlinger 1987).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our protocol was to opportunistically search for foraging birds while walking between sample points. Once we found an individual of a target species, we followed and documented its foraging activities and movements for as long as possible, up to five minutes (Wood et al 2012). We observed that most individuals used multiple black oak trees during foraging bouts.…”

Section: Avian Point Counts and Foraging Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extreme variations in spring temperature affect ecosystem regulating services provided by birds during migration

Wood

Pidgeon

2015

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Extreme weather is becoming more pronounced, making phenological patterns less predictable. Among the potential consequences, extreme weather may alter relationships of migratory birds with their seasonal food resources and thus impact valuable ecosystem regulating services (e.g., bird predation of herbivorous insects). Our goal was to quantify the effect of an extremely warm spring on these relationships in a U.S Midwest oak savanna. Average regional temperatures in the spring of 2009 coupled with record highs in 2010 (88C warmer) were the basis of a natural experiment for addressing our goal. In both springs we documented tree flowering and leaf-out phenology, related these to arrival and foraging behavior of the three most abundant migratory wood-warbler species (Parulidae), and quantified the effects of migratory bird foraging on insect density, size, and herbivory using a branch exclosure experiment. In 2009, the dominant tree species at our study site, eastern black oak (Quercus velutina), flowered in mid-May and the wood warblers foraged heavily in the savanna during this time. Branches from which birds were excluded exhibited a trend toward higher insect density, larger Lepidopterans, and greater flower damage than control branches. In 2010, tree phenology was four weeks earlier than in 2009 and the wood warblers were nearly absent from the savanna (83% fewer), likely because peak food availability preceded their arrival in mid-May. Insect density was 83% greater in 2009 than 2010. However, in 2010, 81% of sampled leaves exhibited substantial damage (.25% of leaf-area removed) compared with 27% of leaves in 2009, presumably due to a lack of herbivorous insect regulation by birds. Our results suggest that the extremely warm spring of 2010 altered linkages between migratory birds and their invertebrate prey that are typical during years of average weather, which likely affected habitat use and the delivery of ecosystem regulating services.

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The importance of street trees to urban avifauna

Wood

Esaian

2020

Ecological Applications

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Street trees are public resources planted in a municipality's right-of-way and are a considerable component of urban forests throughout the world. Street trees provide numerous benefits to people. However, many metropolitan areas have a poor understanding of the value of street trees to wildlife, which presents a gap in our knowledge of conservation in urban ecosystems. Greater Los Angeles (LA) is a global city harboring one of the most diverse and extensive urban forests on the planet. The vast majority of the urban forest is nonnative in geographic origin, planted throughout LA following the influx of irrigated water in the early 1900s. In addition to its extensive urban forest, LA is home to a high diversity of birds, which utilize the metropolis throughout the annual cycle. The cover of the urban forest, and likely street trees, varies dramatically across a socioeconomic gradient. However, it is unknown how this variability influences avian communities. To understand the importance of street trees to urban avifauna, we documented foraging behavior by birds on native and nonnative street trees across a socioeconomic gradient throughout LA. Affluent communities harbored a unique composition of street trees, including denser and larger trees than lower-income communities, which in turn, attracted nearly five times the density of feeding birds. Foraging birds strongly preferred two native street-tree species as feeding substrates, the coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and the California sycamore (Platanus racemosa), and a handful of nonnative tree species, including the Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia), the carrotwood (Cupaniopsis anacardioides), and the southern live oak (Quercus virginiana), in greater proportion than their availability throughout the cityscape (two to three times their availability). Eighty-three percent of streettree species (n = 108, total) were used in a lower proportion than their availability by feeding birds, and nearly all were nonnative in origin. Our findings highlight the positive influence of street trees on urban avifauna. In particular, our results suggest that improved street-tree management in lower-income communities would likely positively benefit birds. Further, our study provides support for the high value of native street-tree species and select nonnative species as important habitat for feeding birds.

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Birds see the trees inside the forest: The potential impacts of changes in forest composition on songbirds during spring migration

Cited by 35 publications

References 61 publications

Forest change in the Driftless Area of the Midwest: From a preferred to undesirable future

Forest change in the Driftless Area of the Midwest: From a preferred to undesirable future

Extreme variations in spring temperature affect ecosystem regulating services provided by birds during migration

The importance of street trees to urban avifauna

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