USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center SIS Project

Accession Number

5001810

Title

Dynamics of forest bird communities in a fragmented suburban landscape

Project Description

In many metropolitan regions, suburban expansion is resulting in an overall reduction in total area

of forest and average forest tract area, increased isolation of forest tracts from other forest habitat,

and change in the land uses that surround forests. We use bird survey data from suburban

Maryland to estimate the dynamics of communities of forest-nesting birds in response to these

land-use changes. Bird counts are being conducted in previously sampled forests, and rates of

local species extinction/colonization and changes in the proportion of forests occupied by

forest-nesting species will be estimated, related to site and landscape characteristics, and

compared among forests experiencing different types of change.

Keywords

bird community dynamics, chesapeake bay watershed, conservation plan, forest birds, forest

conservation, forest fragmentation, geographic information system, habitat requirements, land use

changes, mapping, maryland, modeling, neotropical migrants, point counts, suburban expansion,

Principal

Deanna K Dawson, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Deanna_Dawson@usgs.gov;

Investigators

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