land-use change
impacts of forest fragmentation on population demography
Publications:
Kaiser, S.A. and C.A. Lindell. 2007. Effects of distance to edge and edge type on nestling growth and nest survival in the wood thrush. Condor 109(2):288-303. Lindell, C.A., S.K. Riffell, S.A. Kaiser, A.L. Battin, M.L. Smith, and T.D. Sisk. 2007. Edge responses of tropical and temperate birds. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 119(2):205-220. Collaborators: Catherine Lindell, Michigan State University |
Research Findings
My M.S. research (Michigan State University) focused on one of the potential mechanisms through which the fitness of forest-interior birds may be affected by forest fragmentation. Michigan once contained large intact forests but now is dominated by agricultural land interspersed with forest fragments. The wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) requires forested areas to breed and fragmentation has been hypothesized as a probable cause of their decline. I examined the effect of edge type and distance to edge on nestling growth and nest survival. My results showed that edge influenced nestling growth rate but not nest survival. This suggests that nestling growth rates may indicate edge-interior and edge type differences in habitat quality, even when high regional fragmentation levels overwhelm potential edge-interior differences in nest survival (Kaiser and Lindell 2007). In a study comparing edge responses of tropical and temperate birds, we found that a higher proportion of neotropical species were edge-avoiders compared with temperate species (Lindell et al. 2007). These patterns indicate that forest fragmentation and edge creation may be more detrimental to neotropical species than temperate species if edge-avoidance indicates a species’ ability to withstand land-cover changes.
©S.A. Kaiser 2012