Large-scale vegetation features affecting the distribution and abundance of grassland birds

Abstract

I predicted the likely effects of fire on the abundance of grassland birds by determining which vegetal features influenced the distribution and abundance of grassland birds at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona. Abundance of pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatus) (r² = 0.363), Lucy's warbler (Vermivora luciae) (r² = 0.348), and total abundance of birds (r² = 0.358) was positively correlated with increasing density of mesquite (Prosopis velutina), whereas abundance of cactus wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicappillus) (r² = 0.452) was negatively correlated with increasing mesquite density. Abundance of loggerhead shrikes (Lanius ludovicianus) (r² = 0.693) was positively correlated with increasing environmental patchiness. Fire is likely to reduce the density of mesquite, thus I predict that those species positively correlated with mesquite density will decline following fire whereas species negatively correlated with mesquite density will benefit.