Weather Constrains the Influence of Fire and Grazing on Nesting Greater Prairie-Chickens

Hovick, Torre J.; Elmore, R. Dwayne; Fuhlendorf, Samuel D.; Dahlgren, David K.

doi:10.1016/j.rama.2015.01.009

Cited by 38 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Specifically, 30–35°C is considered to be thermoneutral for bobwhites (Lustick, ), ≥35 – <39°C is considered thermally stressful but not hyperthermic (Guthery, ), and ≥ 39°C represent hyperthermic conditions (Guthery, ; Guthery et al., ). Specifically, at operative temperatures of 39°C, the rate of heat removal is exceeded by heat gain in bobwhites (Guthery, ) and this physiological threshold has been used for the analysis of thermal data and climate projections for galliforms such as greater prairie chickens (Hovick, Elmore, Fuhlendorf, & Dahlgren, ) and bobwhites (Carroll, Davis, Elmore, & Fuhlendorf, ; Guthery et al., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using a historic drought and high‐heat event to validate thermal exposure predictions for ground‐dwelling birds

Carroll

Davis

Elmore

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Deviations from typical environmental conditions can provide insight into how organisms may respond to future weather extremes predicted by climate modeling. During an episodic and multimonth heat wave event (i.e., ambient temperature up to 43.4°C), we studied the thermal ecology of a ground‐dwelling bird species in Western Oklahoma, USA. Specifically, we measured black bulb temperature (T bb) and vegetation parameters at northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter bobwhite) adult and brood locations as well as at stratified random points in the study area. On the hottest days (i.e., ≥39°C), adults and broods obtained thermal refuge using tall woody cover that remained on average up to 16.51°C cooler than random sites on the landscape which reached >57°C. We also found that refuge sites used by bobwhites moderated thermal conditions by more than twofold compared to stratified random sites on the landscape but that T bb commonly exceeded thermal stress thresholds for bobwhites (39°C) for several hours of the day within thermal refuges. The serendipitous high heat conditions captured in our study represent extreme heat for our study region as well as thermal stress for our study species, and subsequently allowed us to assess ground‐dwelling bird responses to temperatures that are predicted to become more common in the future. Our findings confirm the critical importance of tall woody cover for moderating temperatures and functioning as important islands of thermal refuge for ground‐dwelling birds, especially during extreme heat. However, the potential for extreme heat loads within thermal refuges that we observed (albeit much less extreme than the landscape) indicates that the functionality of tall woody cover to mitigate heat extremes may be increasingly limited in the future, thereby reinforcing predictions that climate change represents a clear and present danger for these species.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using a historic drought and high‐heat event to validate thermal exposure predictions for ground‐dwelling birds

Carroll

Davis

Elmore

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Specifically, our model sets investigated the effects of management‐driven disturbance, environmental factors, life history characteristics, and variability over time on daily nest survival (Dinsmore and Dinsmore , Hovick et al. ). The management model set was composed of a TSF variable and a landscape position (i.e., upland or riparian) variable in addition to nine vegetation variables associated with prescribed burning that have been found to influence grassland and shrubland bird nest survival (DeLong et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We then constructed a best model set that included only variables from the most strongly supported candidate models from each single variable model set (i.e., management, environmental, life history, and temporal model sets; Loss and Blair , Hovick et al. ). We also included null and global models in the best model set for comparison (Loss and Blair , Hovick et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reproductive plasticity and landscape heterogeneity benefit a ground‐nesting bird in a fire‐prone ecosystem

Carroll

Hovick

Davis

et al. 2017

Ecological Applications

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Disturbance is critical for the conservation of rangeland ecosystems worldwide and many of these systems are fire dependent. Although it is well established that restoring fire as an ecological process can lead to increased biodiversity in grasslands and shrublands, the underlying mechanisms driving community patterns are poorly understood for fauna in fire-prone landscapes. Much of this uncertainty stems from the paucity of studies that examine the effects of fire at scales relevant to organism life histories. We assessed the response of a non-migratory ground-dwelling bird to disturbance (i.e., prescribed fire) and environmental stochasticity over the course of a 4-yr period, which spanned years of historic drought and record rainfall. Specifically, we investigated the nesting ecology of Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus; hereafter Bobwhite) to illuminate possible avenues by which individuals respond to dynamic landscape patterns during a critical reproductive stage (i.e., nesting) in a mixed-grass shrubland in western Oklahoma, USA. We found that Bobwhites exhibited extreme plasticity in nest substrate use among time since fire categories (TSF) and subsequently maintained high nest survival (e.g., 57-70%). Bobwhites were opportunistic in nest substrate use among TSF categories (i.e., 72% of nest sites in shrubs in 0-12 months post fire compared to 71% in herbaceous vegetation in >36 months post fire), yet nesting decisions were first filtered by similar structural components (i.e., vertical and horizontal cover) within the vicinity of nest sites regardless of TSF category. Despite being a non-migratory and comparatively less mobile ground-nesting bird species, Bobwhites adjusted to dynamic vegetation mosaics on a fire-prone landscape under stochastic climatic conditions that culminated in stable and high nest survival. Broadly, our findings provide a unique depiction of organism response strategies to fire at scales relevant to a critical life-stage, a topic that has been previously understudied and poorly understood. We also demonstrate how doing so can better inform conservation practices aimed at restoring fire regimes on grassland and shrubland landscapes.

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“…), but even with this behavioral adjustment, high temperature can reduce nest success (Hovick et al. ). Vegetation cover (Suggitt et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of temperature and precipitation on grassland bird nesting success as mediated by patch size

Zuckerberg

Ribic

McCauley

2018

Conservation Biology

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Grassland birds are declining faster than any other bird guild across North America. Shrinking ranges and population declines are attributed to widespread habitat loss and increasingly fragmented landscapes of agriculture and other land uses that are misaligned with grassland bird conservation. Concurrent with habitat loss and degradation, temperate grasslands have been disproportionally affected by climate change relative to most other terrestrial biomes. Distributions of grassland birds often correlate with gradients in climate, but few researchers have explored the consequences of weather on the demography of grassland birds inhabiting a range of grassland fragments. To do so, we modeled the effects of temperature and precipitation on nesting success rates of 12 grassland bird species inhabiting a range of grassland patches across North America (21,000 nests from 81 individual studies). Higher amounts of precipitation in the preceding year were associated with higher nesting success, but wetter conditions during the active breeding season reduced nesting success. Extremely cold or hot conditions during the early breeding season were associated with lower rates of nesting success. The direct and indirect influence of temperature and precipitation on nesting success was moderated by grassland patch size. The positive effects of precipitation in the preceding year on nesting success were strongest in relatively small grassland patches and had little effect in large patches. Conversely, warm temperatures reduced nesting success in small grassland patches but increased nesting success in large patches. Mechanisms underlying these differences may be patch-size-induced variation in microclimates and predator activity. Although the exact cause is unclear, large grassland patches, the most common metric of grassland conservation, appears to moderate the effects of weather on grassland-bird demography and could be an effective component of climate-change adaptation.

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Weather Constrains the Influence of Fire and Grazing on Nesting Greater Prairie-Chickens

Cited by 38 publications

References 55 publications

Using a historic drought and high‐heat event to validate thermal exposure predictions for ground‐dwelling birds

Using a historic drought and high‐heat event to validate thermal exposure predictions for ground‐dwelling birds

Reproductive plasticity and landscape heterogeneity benefit a ground‐nesting bird in a fire‐prone ecosystem

Effects of temperature and precipitation on grassland bird nesting success as mediated by patch size

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