Effects of resource value on broad-tailed and rufous hummingbird behavior

Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/101650/1/39015056308029.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/101650/2/39015056308029.pd

Life history tradeoffs, incubation behavior and conservation of horned larks (Eremophila alpestris)

Nearly 30 percent of the earth’s terrestrial surface is mountainous and despite representing a large proportion of the planet’s protected areas, the ecology of vertebrates in high elevation areas have received little attention from researchers and managers. I studied two subspecies of horned larks (Eremophila alpestris articola and E. a. strigata) that breed at high elevation and latitude in British Columbia, Canada and at low elevation and latitude in Washington, USA, respectively. I addressed the question of how the life history of alpine breeding songbirds differs from their low elevation conspecifics and showed that life history variation can be found among closely related groups. My results were consistent with other comparative demographic studies which suggest that alpine vertebrate populations tend to show survivor life history strategies when compared to their low elevation counterparts. In addition, population growth rates were stable for E. a. articola suggesting that this subspecies is well adapted to the challenges of breeding in alpine environments. E. a. strigata, however, is declining rapidly and the remaining breeding habitats in Washington do not support stable populations. I used demographic models to show that within reasonable ranges for each vital rate (fecundity, adult and juvenile survival), management actions that target a single rate independently are unlikely to result in stable or recovering populations and management actions that target multiple vital rates should be prioritized. Finally, to further investigate adaptations of E. a. articola to alpine environments I examined how they modify their incubation behavior in response to changes in ambient temperatures which were generally well outside the optimal temperature range for normal embryonic development. Females adjusted the amount of time spent incubating by varying the frequency rather than the duration of recesses. At low ambient temperatures they appeared to shift their investment toward the survival of their eggs by increasing the total time spent on the nest instead of taking longer or more frequent foraging bouts. Overall, the results of my study indicate that alpine populations of horned larks have life history traits and breeding behaviors that allow them to persist in these areas despite the challenging breeding conditions.Forestry, Faculty ofGraduat

A Demographic Model to Evaluate Population Declines in the Endangered Streaked Horned Lark

The Streaked Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris strigata) is listed as endangered by the State of Washington, USA and by Canada under the Species at Risk Act and is also classified as a federal candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act in the USA. A substantial portion of Streaked Horned Lark habitat has been lost or degraded, and range contraction has occurred in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. We estimate the vital rates (fecundity, adult and juvenile survival) and population growth rate (λ) for Streaked Horned Larks breeding in Washington, USA and conduct a Life-Stage Simulation Analysis (LSA) to evaluate which vital rate has the greatest influence on λ. We simulated changes in the three vital rates to examine how much they would need to be adjusted either independently or in concert to achieve a stable Streaked Horned Lark population (λ = 1). We also evaluated which fecundity component (the number of fledglings per egg laid or renesting interval) had the greatest impact on λ. The estimate of population growth suggests that Streaked Horned Larks in Washington are declining rapidly (λ = 0.62 ± 0.10) and that local breeding sites are not sustainable without immigration. The LSA results indicate that adult survival had the greatest influence on λ, followed by juvenile survival and fecundity. However, increases in vital rates led to λ = 1 only when adult survival was raised from 0.47 to 0.85, juvenile survival from 0.17 to 0.58, and fecundity from 0.91 to 3.09. Increases in breeding success and decreases in the renesting interval influenced λ similarly; however, λ did not reach 1 even when breeding success was raised to 100% or renesting intervals were reduced to 1 day. Only when all three vital rates were increased simultaneously did λ approach 1 without requiring highly unrealistic increases in each vital rate. We conclude that conservation activities need to target all or multiple vital rates to be successful. The baseline data presented here and subsequent efforts to manage Streaked Horned Larks will provide valuable information for management of other declining Horned Lark subspecies and other grassland songbirds across North America

Mother-son Parental Care in Horned Larks

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Development time for an alpine population of Horned Lark

Data was collected in the field from 2003 to 2011 by Alaine Camfield, Elizabeth MacDonald, and Kathy Martin. The variables 'Clutch initiation', 'Incubation initiation', 'Hatch date', and 'Fledge date' are in Julian date format. 'Predation risk' is the probability of nest loss per month calculated using the Mayfield estimate

Weather data for Hudson Bay Mountain, 2003-2011

Temperature and precipitation data collected on Hudson Bay Mountain (alpine field site) over the years 2003, 2004, 3005, 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2011. Data was collected by Alaine Camfield, Kathy Martin and Will MacKenzie. SA stands for 'Smithers Airport' which was the closest weather station with available precipitation data early in the study when precipitation was not available for the study site. See associated paper for more details

Strategies for identifying priority areas for songbird conservation in Canada's boreal forest

Canada's boreal forest region is among the most extensive and largely intact ecosystems on earth, but has experienced rapid industrial development in the last half-century. Calls for urgent conservation action have been prompted by the increasing pace of development and declines in biodiversity, including songbirds. To assist conservation decision making, we introduce a framework to facilitate selection of the highest priority areas for a given conservation objective. We varied six key decision points representing possible constraints or a priori conservation factors: (1) prioritization metric (species representation vs. diversity), (2) geographic stratification, (3) degree of anthropogenic disturbance, (4) species' conservation status, (5) species' ecological association, and (6) climate-change and uncertainty discounting. Using the Zonation conservation planning tool, we evaluated landbird conservation priorities across 128 scenarios for 63 passerine species based on current and projected future density predictions. We compared Zonation land rankings across scenarios with respect to consistency, efficiency (additive and proportional conservation value per unit area), and the relative contributions of each of the six factors of interest. We found large differences between solutions depending on constraints and conservation objectives, and relatively low conservation efficiency overall, with the largest gains in overall conservation value observed in areas ranging from 0.31-0.56 of the study region. This reflects the large range of conservation opportunities still present in the Canadian boreal region, and the widely dispersed nature of landbird distributions, which results in high substitutability among similar areas. However, we did find increasing consistency among solutions as multiple constraints were considered. In particular, stratifying solutions geographically resulted in more consistent priorities, although at the expense of efficiency. Other constraints, including climate change, disturbance- and uncertainty-discounting, and the selection and weighting of species, helped to further focus priorities. Although no single scenario can be viewed as prescriptive, we provide a roadmap for prioritizing boreal songbird conservation efforts across multiple conservation objectives

Toward actionable, coproduced research on boreal birds focused on building respectful partnerships

Recent research on boreal birds has focused on understanding effects of human activity on populations and their habitats. As bird populations continue to decline, research is often intended to inform conservation and management policies and practices. Research produced under the typical "loading dock" model by Western-trained researchers often fails to achieve desired conservation outcomes. There is growing global consensus that science is most actionable when produced in collaboration between scientists, potential end-users of the science, and communities implicated in or affected by the research and its outcomes. A fully collaborative research process, which we call "coproduced research," involves partners in the design, execution, and communication of research. To coproduce research, it is first important to understand the sociocultural context of a research project. For boreal bird conservation in Canada, this context includes complex linkages between Indigenous communities, governments, and rights-holders, multiple levels of government, nonprofit organizations, companies, and industry consortiums, civic communities, and others. We explain this context, and give particular attention to best practices for coproduction of research between non-Indigenous researchers and Indigenous partners. We also introduce a self-assessment tool for researchers to gauge the strength of their relationships with potential partners. We highlight the challenges of doing coproduced research, including cross-cultural communication and lengthy timelines to build relationships. We propose a guide for coproduced research in four stages: (1) identify potential partners; (2) build relationships; (3) identify mechanisms to inform policy and management; and (4) execute research and communications plans. We illustrate the stages with examples of "bright spots" to demonstrate successful coproduction partnerships. Although we focus on research to improve knowledge for boreal bird conservation and management, many of the lessons we share for adopting a coproduced research model would apply to terrestrial or marine wildlife, or any natural resource