Date of Completion
2022
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Environmental Sciences
Thesis Type
Honors College
First Advisor
Allan Strong
Keywords
area-sensitivity, fragmentation, edge effect, perimeter-area ratio, species richness
Abstract
Forests are of great value to many bird species, especially neotropical migrants. However, in urbanized ecosystems, much of this habitat is fragmented. Previous studies have shown that forest fragmentation can affect breeding bird richness and abundance, but these studies are limited in scope. In this study, I assessed the effect of forest fragmentation on breeding bird communities in Burlington, Vermont, USA. I surveyed 14 fragmented forest patches between 4.2 and 40.1 hectares in size to determine how the richness of breeding bird species varies with patch size and perimeter-area ratio. I found a trend of increasing breeding bird species richness as forest patch size increases, but no evidence of an effect of perimeter-area ratio on species richness. These data will be valuable for land management, restoration, and conservation initiatives in the area.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Spindel, Jordan Matthew, "Effects of Forest Patch Size and Shape on Breeding Bird Species Richness" (2022). UVM Honors College Senior Theses. 502.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/502