Using Vegetation Guilds to Predict Bird Habitat Characteristics in Riparian Areas
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PHYSICAL AND BIOTIC DRIVERS OF CHANGE IN RIPARIAN ECOSYSTEMS
Using Vegetation Guilds to Predict Bird Habitat Characteristics in Riparian Areas Erin S. Cubley 1
&
Heather L. Bateman 2 & David M. Merritt 3 & David J. Cooper 1
Received: 27 January 2020 / Accepted: 30 August 2020 # Society of Wetland Scientists 2020
Abstract Within arid regions riparian forests support high bird diversity compared to surrounding uplands. In these same regions, water demands for agriculture, urbanization, and recreation have altered the structure and composition of riparian forests and degraded bird habitat. Along rivers, plants with similar responses to flood disturbance and water availability can be grouped into functional guilds using traits. The use of plant guilds can mechanistically link bird distributions to traits such as canopy height, specific leaf area, and growth form. We demonstrate that bird species richness, abundance, and diversity are related to the heterogeneity of vegetation structure and plant guilds along a perennial river in the southwestern U.S. High-quality habitat can be explained by canopy cover, foliage height diversity, and foliage cover in the understory. The tall tree guild (dominated by Salix gooddingii) was the strongest predictor of bird habitat followed by drought tolerant shrubs (dominated by Prosopis velutina) demonstrating that riparian shrublands should be considered for conservation alongside gallery forests. Projected changes in flow regimes may result in homogenization of riparian vegetation and reduce habitat quality for migratory and breeding land birds. Practitioners can use developed methods to group vegetation by guilds to focus bird conservation efforts in arid ecosystems. Keywords Avian diversity . Flow response guilds . Dryland rivers . Habitat heterogeneity . Verde river
Introduction Water development projects and climate changes are altering river flows throughout the world, resulting in shifts of riparian vegetation. These changes are most significant in arid regions * Erin S. Cubley [email protected] Heather L. Bateman [email protected] David M. Merritt [email protected] David J. Cooper [email protected] 1
Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
2
College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ, USA
3
Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air and Rare Plants Staff, National Stream and Aquatic Ecology Center, U.S. Forest Service, Fort Collins, CO, USA
where water is scarce (Palmer et al. 2009; Döll et al. 2009). Riparian areas typically support the only deciduous forests in these regions providing critical wildlife habitat and landscapescale connectivity (Selwood et al. 2017). Shallow water tables and frequent floods in riparian areas support greater vegetation biomass than adjacent uplands, and riparian forest canopies can moderate extreme daytime temperatures and relative humidity (Naumburg et al. 2005). Riparian ecosystems enhance
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