Open AccessA HABITAT BASED MODEL FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF FOREST INTERIOR NESTING BIRDS IN A FRAGMENTED LANDSCAPE
Author(s) -
DELONG ALLISON KIMBER,
LAMBERSON ROLAND H.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
natural resource modeling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.28
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1939-7445
pISSN - 0890-8575
DOI - 10.1111/j.1939-7445.1999.tb00006.x
Subject(s) - habitat , population , ecology , intraspecific competition , geography , population model , competition (biology) , distribution (mathematics) , metapopulation , biological dispersal , biology , demography , mathematical analysis , mathematics , sociology
. Increased awareness of the plight of many forest dwelling species has made necessary the development of methods for projecting the spatial distribution of these populations. This is particularly important for populations that currently occupy forest fragments and that are likely to be exposed to further disruption of their natural habitat. In this paper we develop a model for predicting the distribution of a bird population that evolved as forest interior dwellers. This model uses as its basis knowledge of the relationship between demographic characteristics of the population and the qualities of the habitat where individuals reside. We make the assumption that individuals will be naturally drawn to areas where they might expect greater reproductive success and repelled from areas where there is a high degree of intraspecific competition (high density). We apply the model to the ovenbird population in a large region of the Midwest. We use the model to examine the relative extent to which the surplus production from two major source areas supports extensive sink populations. The basic diffusion model parameterized by county forest cover data projects a population distribution which compares favorably with the results from the breeding bird count.