Effects of disturbance on prairie birds

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I study the effects of habitat distribution and disturbance on communities of prairie birds.  Loss of prairie habitats is one of the factors that has resulted in dramatic declines of grassland bird populations over the last four decades.  Learning how to manage prairies and associated agriculture will help us conserve and restore prairies to benefit prairie birds.  At the same time, this research will contribute to our knowledge of how disturbances such as grazing influence prairie birds directly and indirectly.Because cattle densities are quite low in arid prairies, grazing rarely directly destroys nests. Nonetheless, nesting success is sometimes lower in the presence of cattle. I will determine whether this is because of indirect effects of grazing on vegetation or invertebrate prey of birds. By evaluating the ecological effects of a wide range of grazing intensities, this research will help us manage grazing in prairies to benefit both ranchers and wildlife.Many prairies are highly fragmented by human activities. Birds may select which prairie remnants to inhabit based on a number of different reasons. For example, their ability to get to prairies, predation pressure within those prairies, and invertebrate prey abundance, may all vary among prairies. All of these factors may be influenced by prairie size, shape, and surroundings. Preliminary surveys indicate that prairie songbirds are rarely found within small prairies, but the reason for this is unknown. I will determine the extent to which prairie size and surrounding agricultural lands influence prairie use by birds, their predators, and their prey.