Problem Addressed: U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program on bird populations.
Goal(s)/Objective(s): Investigate the U.S. Department of Agriculture's CRP on bird populations.
Key Findings: Four species, Western Meadowlark, Ring-necked Pheasant, Brown-headed Cowbird, and Northern Bobwhite showed evidence of positive population responses after the introduction of the CRP.
Problem Addressed: Avian abundance and distribution patterns for New England using data from the U.S.G.S. Biological Resources Division's Breeding Bird Survey (BBS).
Goal(s)/Objective(s): Test predictions of Hanski's core-satellite hypothesis, Brown's ecological specialization hypothesis and Wright's sampling hypothesis to determine which best explained the observed patterns in the three distinct avifaunal regions within New England.
Key Findings: Classification and regression tree analyses indicated no correlation between the spatial exponents and natural history correlates; only 15-25% of the mean deviance of the temporal exponents was explained by life history correlates.
Goal(s)/Objective(s): Examine marten food habits and habitat features associated with small mammal captures to evaluate the hypothesis that marten select habitat in response to differences in macro- and micro- habitat selection by their principal prey.
Key Findings: Small animals did not seem to select habitat based on coarse woody debris, perhaps because dead woody material was sufficient in all of the stand types.