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Multiple Responses by Cerulean Warblers to Experimental Forest Disturbance in the Appalachian Mountains

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Multiple Responses by Cerulean Warblers to Experimental Forest Disturbance in the Appalachian Mountains University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2011 Multiple responses by Cerulean Warblers to experimental forest disturbance in the Appalachian Mountains Than James Boves University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Behavior and Ethology Commons, Forest Management Commons, Population Biology Commons, and the Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons Recommended Citation Boves, Than James, "Multiple responses by Cerulean Warblers to experimental forest disturbance in the Appalachian Mountains. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2011. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1169 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Than James Boves entitled "Multiple responses by Cerulean Warblers to experimental forest disturbance in the Appalachian Mountains." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Natural Resources. David A. Buehler, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Patrick D. Keyser, David S. Buckley, Todd M. Freeberg Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Multiple responses by Cerulean Warblers to experimental forest disturbance in the Appalachian Mountains A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Than James Boves December 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank many people for their valuable help and support on this project; without these individuals this research and this amazing experience, would not have been possible. First, I‘d like to thank my advisor and mentor, David Buehler, for his guidance, advice, and exceptional support. Dave was ideal for me at this point in my educational career: very optimistic, encouraging, and willing to give me the freedom to explore my personal interests within the confines of this project. I will be forever grateful that he talked me into coming to Tennessee when I was initially hesitant! I‘d also like to thank my graduate committee members, David Buckley, Patrick Keyser, Todd Freeberg, and Lynn Siefferman for their comments, useful discussions, and constructive critiques of my research. I would particularly like to thank Lynn for providing me with her expertise and positive outlook (not to mention lab equipment) regarding my plumage color work. I greatly appreciate the hard work of the professors and graduate students (from multiple universities) that conceived, implemented, and collected data for this study including: Amanda Rodewald, Jeff Larkin, Petra Wood, Ben Wigley, Tiffany Beachy, Greg George, Jim Sheehan, Felicity Newell, Marja Bakermans, Andrea Evans, and Matt Woods (as well as Dave Buehler and Pat Keyser). I‘d like to thank my friends and labmates at the University of Tennessee; without their camaraderie it would have been nearly impossible to complete this work. I‘d also like to thank the fantastic work of many field assistants that (a) collected data for me, and (b) became great friends: Phill Massey, Doug Raybuck, Angie Langevin, Jen Glagowski, Jess Piispanen, Peter Capobianco, David Rankin, Evan Pannkuk, Richard Gaillard, Evan DeHamer, Matt Horton, and Will Collier. ii I owe many thanks to my parents for allowing me to follow my passions, instilling in me a great appreciation for learning and supporting my seemingly never-ending education. Most of all, I‘d like to thank my wife Emily for her constant encouragement, patience, and devotion to me and the Cerulean Warbler project. It is difficult to express in words how much she has helped me. Not only was Emily there for me emotionally when I had doubts about my ability to complete this work, but she was also the greatest field assistant I could ever imagine; she was personally responsible for finding over 100 Cerulean Warbler nests, and I could not have done this without her. Last, but by no means least, I‘d like to (insufficiently) express my gratitude to the ceruleans and the rugged Cumberland Mountains. Before I started this project, I had only seen a couple of Cerulean Warblers in my life, and I had never heard of the Cumberlands. Four years later, I now know that both will always be a part of who I am. For the rest of my life, I will smile whenever I think of DB Cooper, with his pink and black band, bouncing out of the net on the heavy treatment and Moe singing to one of his females on the intermediate. Someday, I hope that my son and I can walk up plot three at Royal Blue, stand together on the rocky outcrop, and hear the beautiful sound of seven Cerulean Warblers singing simultaneously. And maybe even see Moe again. iii ABSTRACT The Cerulean Warbler (Setophaga cerulea) is a mature forest obligate and one of the fastest declining songbird species in the United States. This decline may be related to a lack of disturbance within contemporary forests; however, the consequences of disturbance on the species have not been rigorously evaluated. Thus, we assessed multiple responses by Cerulean Warblers to a range of experimental forest disturbances across the core of their breeding range in the Appalachian Mountains. We quantified individual and population responses to these manipulations, and assessed the potential consequences of disturbance on the sexual signaling system. Male ceruleans were strongly attracted to intermediate and heavy disturbances at the stand scale. Despite attraction to disturbed habitats, nest success declined in these conditions, particularly in the highly productive Cumberland Mountains of northern Tennessee. Taken together, these opposing responses suggest that anthropogenically-disturbed forests may act as local ecological traps, but the impact of these local traps on the global population is dependent on several unestimated parameters. At a finer scale, selection for habitat features varied spatially. Males consistently selected for territories near canopy gaps and on productive slopes, but they displayed inconsistent territory selection in regards to tree diameter, basal area, overstory canopy cover, and canopy height. Females were more consistent in their selection of features within territories, selecting nest patches with large, well-spaced trees near disturbances. Floristically, female ceruleans consistently selected for sugar maples (Acer saccharum), white oaks (Quercus alba), and cucumber magnolias (Magnolia acuminata) as nest trees and they selected against red maples (A. rubrum) and red oaks (Q. rubra). Disturbances had little effect on male age structure, but males that occupied disturbed forest habitat were in better condition than those in undisturbed habitat. Parental behavior differed among disturbances, with birds in more highly iv disturbed habitats provisioning their young at greater rates, but bringing smaller food loads, potentially helping to explain the decrease in nest survival in disturbances. Finally, we found that male ceruleans displayed various plumage ornaments that signaled individual quality. However, the relationship between breast band width and body mass was contingent on habitat, and only existed in intermediate disturbances. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 LITERATURE CITED ............................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 1: BRINGING DISTURBANCE BACK TO THE FOREST: AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST OF THE IMPACTS OF EMULATING NATURAL DISTURBANCES ON A MATURE FOREST OBLIGATE ................................................................................................................... 13 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 15 METHODS ............................................................................................................................... 19 RESULTS ................................................................................................................................. 27 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................... 30 LITERATURE CITED ............................................................................................................. 41 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................... 55 CHAPTER 2: SPATIAL VARIATION OF MULTI-SCALE HABITAT SELECTION AND ADAPTIVENESS OF HABITAT DECISIONS MADE BY CERULEAN WARBLERS ACROSS A DISTURBANCE CONTINUUM ............................................................................. 68 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................
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