Heterogeneous landscapes made up of variegated patches are common among managed ecosystems, and often provide diverse structural and compositional habitat characteristics. Landscape heterogeneity can affect distribution of resources, competition, and dispersal of organisms over space and time. Therefore, understanding how species respond to dynamic landscapes is necessary when implementing management decisions that foster biodiversity within managed ecosystems. My study uses hierarchical models in a Bayesian framework to quantify effects of landscape context on meso-mammal predators and northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) occupancy in an intensively managed loblolly pine forest. Results indicate that edge density can positively influence occupancy of meso-mammal predators, while age of stand, or years since disturbance, can negatively influence occupancy of northern bobwhite. These results further illustrate the importance of considering biodiversity implications when making management decisions.

As human land uses continue to expand rapidly across the landscape, the management practices of private landowners are an essential part of effective conservation of biodiversity. Conservation of early successional habitats (ESH) and the species that depend on them is a priority in the eastern United States, and efforts to create more ESH on private lands has primarily focused on forest landowners and the harvesting of timber. Private lands with significant pasture cover in a forested landscape present an additional opportunity to create and maintain ESH, yet our understanding of landowner values and attitudes about management strategies in pastures (i.e., modifying mowing or grazing practices, use of herbicides to control invasive species) is lacking. This study implemented a survey of private landowners in five western Virginia counties who own at least 25 acres that are at or above 2000 ft elevation. This region was selected due to its high priority for declining bird species and its mix of heavily forested ridges and extensive pastureland in its valleys. Our primary objective was to understand what influences private landowner intentions to carry out seven different ESH management strategies (i.e. modified mowing, modified grazing, timber harvests within forest, timber harvests at filed-forest border, prescribed fire, use of machinery, and use of herbicides to control invasive species) for the benefit of wildlife in the next five years. General linear models (GLM) were developed to determine whether landowner values, barriers to management, perceived norms, past experience, organizational membership, and demographics predicted the intention to carry out each management strategy in the next five years. Models explained 22-49% of the variation in landowner intention and predictors of intention differed across the seven management strategies. What landowners’ value about their property significantly predicted behavioral intention but was not consistent across the different management strategies. For example, those most likely to modify mowing and grazing tend to value ecological aspects of their land (i.e., pollinator habitat and water quality) whereas those most likely to harvest timber value hunting and revenue from production on their land. Landowner’s past experience with land management was a strong predictor of likelihood to modify mowing and grazing and to harvest timber. Lastly, members of non-hunting conservation organizations are nearly 7 times more likely to modify grazing practices than non-members, and members of hunting conservation organizations were 2.6 times more likely to use prescribed fire for the benefit of wildlife. These results suggest that expanding outreach efforts to include additional management options for creating ESH (i.e., modification of mowing and grazing practices) and the inclusion of images and verbiage about the benefits to pollinator species, non-game species, and water quality would likely recruit landowners who may not have been recruited with current methods.

Once prevalent on the landscape, early-successional habitats are now increasingly threatened in the northeastern United States. As a result, many species that rely on or require habitats dominated by shrubs, young trees, grasses, and forbs have experienced precipitous population declines, leading many organizations to list shrubland habitats and constituent wildlife as a conservation priority. Even-aged forest management (e.g. clearcutting) has been shown to be an efficient and effective means for creating early-successional habitat for certain taxa such as shrubland birds, but it is unfeasible in many situations in southern New England due to public opinion and increased parcelization. Group selection harvests create shrubland conditions in the form of relatively small forest openings (< 1 ha); however, limited attention has been directed toward understanding the extent to which these methods contribute to conservation of early-successional species. In order to assess the conservation value of small forest openings for wildlife in southern New England, I studied two distinct communities associated with early-successional habitats, shrubland birds and bees (Hymenoptera: Apiformes), in openings created by group selection harvests and patch-cutting. In 2014 and 2015, birds were surveyed in small forest openings in western Massachusetts in an effort to describe relationships between species occurrence and patch area as well as other microhabitat-, patch-, and landscape-level variables. Black-and-white warblers, common yellowthroats, chestnut-sided warblers, eastern towhees, and gray catbirds were likely to be present in openings at least 0.3 ha in size, while indigo buntings and prairie warblers had minimum area requirements of 0.55 and 1.07 ha, respectively. Variables within microhabitat-, patch-, and landscape-levels were important for predicting species occurrence. Most notably, prairie warblers were more likely to occur in openings closer to large patches of habitat such as powerline corridors, even if those openings were small in size. I conclude that, despite their inability to support the entire community of shrubland birds in this region, small forest openings can provide habitat for several species of conservation concern if proper attention is given to promoting suitable microhabitat, patch, and landscape characteristics. Bees were sampled in openings as well as adjacent mature forest in an effort to describe the bee community, identify environmental variables influencing bee abundance and diversity, and examine the extent to which openings created by forest management may support bees, as well as potentially augment bee populations within adjacent unmanaged forest. Bees were significantly more abundant and diverse in forest openings than mature forest, but species composition was indistinguishable between openings and forest. Abundance and diversity displayed no relationship with opening size in either openings or forest, but were generally positively related to the amount of early-successional habitat on the landscape. Vegetation characteristics within openings were important in shaping bee communities in openings, with abundance and diversity decreasing with vegetation height and increasing with floral abundance. Notably, eusocial, soft-wood-nesting, and small bees exhibited the opposite pattern in adjacent forest, increasing with the succession of openings and decreasing with greater floral abundance within openings. These results suggest that the creation of small forest openings may help to promote bees both in openings and adjacent mature forest, but certain guilds may be negatively affected.

As shrubland bird populations decline, there is a critical need to understand the effects of habitat management. I studied a population of color-banded prairie warblers (Setophaga discolor) between 2008-2011 in a shifting mosaic landscape within a Massachusetts inland, pitch pine-scrub oak barren consisting of persistent, newly created, succeeding, and disturbed habitats. I present data showing that the abundance and population structure at this site appears to be a function of colonization of newly created habitat by second-year birds, which are likely excluded from mature early-successional habitat by site-faithful older birds. Breeding season fecundity did not differ significantly between newly-created and mature habitats. Birds displaced by mowing or fire dispersed to nearby suitable habitat the following year, had relatively similar reproductive success, and did not negatively affect pairing or reproductive success in adjacent areas. My findings are novel and show that the effects of shrubland management on shrubland birds are beneficial in the short- and long-term. I also examined prairie warbler nest-site selection and nest survival in relation to plant leafing phenology and other factors. Prairie warblers selected distinct nest sites and certain attributes of these selected sites increased nest survival; thus I conclude that nest-site selection is adaptive. Plant leafing phenology influenced nest-site selection and nest survival in this system; its effects on birds should be considered as a potential mechanism by which bird communities can be affected by global climate change.

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