In south Florida, the Greater Everglades ecosystem supports sixteen species of
wading birds. Wading birds serve as important indicator species because they are highly
mobile, demonstrate flexible habitat selection, and respond quickly to changes in habitat
quality. Models that establish habitat relationships from distribution patterns of wading
birds can be used to predict changes in habitat quality that may result from restoration
and climate change. I developed spatio-temporal species distribution models for the
Great Egret, White Ibis, and Wood Stork over a decadal gradient of environmental
conditions to identify factors that link habitat availability to habitat use (i.e., habitat
selection), habitat use to species abundance, and species abundance (over multiple scales)
to nesting effort and success. Hydrological variables (depth, recession rate, days since
drydown, reversal, and hydroperiod) over multiple temporal scales and with existing
links to wading bird responses were used as proxies for landscape processes that influence prey availability (i.e., resources). In temporal foraging conditions (TFC)
models, species demonstrated conditional preferences for resources based on resource
levels at differing temporal scales. Wading bird abundance was highest when prey
production from optimal periods of wetland inundation was concentrated in shallow
depths. Similar responses were observed in spatial foraging conditions (SFC) models
predicting spatial occurrence over time, accounting for spatial autocorrelation. The TFC
index represents conditions within suitable depths that change daily and reflects patch
quality, whereas the SFC index spatially represents suitability of all cells and reflects
daily landscape patch abundance. I linked these indices to responses at the nest initiation
and nest provisioning breeding phases from 1993-2013. The timing of increases and
overall magnitude of resource pulses predicted by the TFC in March and April were
strongly linked to breeding responses by all species. Great Egret nesting effort and
success were higher with increases in conspecific attraction (i.e., clustering). Wood Stork
nesting effort was closely related to timing of concurrently high levels of patch quality
(regional scale) and abundance (400-m scale), indicating the importance of a multi-scaled
approach. The models helped identify positive and negative changes to multi-annual
resource pulses from hydrological restoration and climate change scenarios, respectively. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_13413 |
| Contributors | Beerens, James M. (author), Noonburg, Erik G. (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Biological Sciences |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 147 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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