Effects of Fire, Extreme Weather, and Anthropogenic Disturbance On Avian Biodiversity in the U.S.

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Effects of Fire, Extreme Weather, and
Anthropogenic DisturbanceOn Avian Biodiversity
in the U.S.
Anna M. Pidgeon, V. Radeloff, T. Albright, C.
Ritttenhouse, M. Clayton, University of
Wisconsin-MadisonC. Flather, S. Stewart, U.S.
Forest ServiceJ. Masek, NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center
NASA Biodiversity Science Team Meeting,
Washington DC May 18, 2010
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Bird biodiversity patterns
Pidgeon et al., 2007, Ecol. Appl., 171989-2010
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Research question

• How does disturbance contribute to patterns of
  bird biodiversity?

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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
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Integrating the data
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
Houses and forest fragmentation Both
fragmentation and housing development had
strong effects on avian richness Effects
differed by guild and ecoregion E.g., in the
West houses were positively correlated with
richness, but negatively in East Pidgeon et
al., 2007, Ecol. Appl., 171989-2010 Lepczyk et
al., 2008, Cons. Bio., 22405-416
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
Hurricanes Hurricanes changed species
abundances, and community composition, but
did not change species richness Rittenhouse
et al., 2010, Global Change Biology
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
d1
d2
Legend
BBS route
Non-forest
Forest
Water
Post-disturbance forest
Disturbed forest
Post-disturb. Non-forest
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Community similarity
Successive change
Progressive change
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Predicted Community Similarity Neotrop migrant
Proportion of post-disturbance non-forest (Forest
Loss)
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Predicted Community Similarity Residents
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Predicted Community Similarity Ground nesters
Proportion of post-disturbance non-forest (Forest
Loss)
E
W
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity

• Forest disturbance maintained community
  similarity for several guilds, including
  neotropical migrants, permanent residents and
  cavity nesters
• Forest loss decreased community similarity for
  all forest birds, and most guilds

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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
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Drought associated with abundance declines among
migratory birds in High Plains
Dry
Montane
Humid
Response to -3 S.D. June-ending 32-week SPI
Albright et al., in press, Global Change Biol.
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
MODIS Land surface temperature
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
Standardized seasonal land surface temperature
exceedance
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Summer-long heat wave associated with avian
abundance
Response to summer-long heat wave (3 C mean
exceedance)
Albright et al., in revision, Remote Sens.
Environ.
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity
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Drought and heatwaves Why consider them jointly?

• Interaction effects
• 1) Physical Negative correlation between
  anomalies of temperature and precipitation
• 2) Biotic Water requirements rise with
  temperature

Kevin McGowan
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Response of ground-nesting species to
drought/heat events
Nesting period
Post-fledging period
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• Changes in migratory bird abundance
• associated with drought/heat events

Significance (P lt 0.05)
Post-fledging period
Nesting period
Temperate migrants
N Y
20
15
10
5
2
-2
-5
Neotropical migrants
-10
-15
-20
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Disturbance and bird biodiversity

• Drought - Abundance declined, species richness
  did not change
• Heatwave - Avian community patterns most related
  to MODIS 8-day LST exceedances
• Drought/Heat events- effects most severe in arid
  southwest

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Discussion

• Abundance 1st signal of change
• Mechanisms-loss of juveniles?
• -returning migrant birds redistribute themselves?

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Conclusions

• Remote sensing measures of climatic stability
  and forest disturbance are effective in
  characterizing drivers of avian patterns

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Conclusions

• Communities are continuously in flux
• Disturbance affects both interannual variability
  and long-term avian patterns
• Abundance is more strongly affected by climate
  events than species richness

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Thank you!
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Landcover
Housing density
Northern Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin