Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Date
2011-09-13
Keywords
habitat selection, Thryothorus wren
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/70919
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Alternative habitats for birds are areas modified by human activities that replace natural ecosystems, but provide the resources and conditions necessary for survival and reproduction. Empirical support that shade coffee is an alternative habitat comes mainly from occupancy patterns, but few studies have examined habitat selection and its consequences in shade coffee agroecosystems. The goal of the research presented here was to evaluate the consequences of habitat selection by the rufous-and-white wren, Thryothorus rufalbus, and the plain wren, Thryothorus modestus, on reproduction in a coffee agroforestry landscape in Nicaragua. The first section of this study used compositional analysis to evaluate habitat selection at two scales, the territory and the nest, and found that T. rufalbus exhibits strong selection of shade coffee at both scales, while T. modestus selects modified forest at the scale of the territory, but shows little habitat selection preferences at the scale of the nest. The second section of this study studied the reproductive consequences of that habitat selection, and found that productivity was extremely low in shade coffee for T. rufalbus, while habitat selection had little effect on productivity in T. modestus. The final section of this study examined how host specificity of T. naevia excellens for T. rufalbus may explain differences in the productivity of the study species. Shade coffee may provide alternative habitat for some, but not all, species with high abundances in this agroforestry crop. The conservation implications of these findings are discussed
Recommended Citation
Mark, Melissa, "Consequences of habitat selection by two species of Thryothorus wren in a coffee agroforestry landscape" (2011). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 127.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/127