| associations of grassland bird communities with black-tailed prairie dogs in the north american great plains. | colonial burrowing herbivores can modify vegetation structure, create belowground refugia, and generate landscape heterogeneity, thereby affecting the distribution and abundance of associated species. black-tailed prairie dogs (cynomys ludovicianus) are such a species, and they may strongly affect the abundance and composition of grassland bird communities. we examined how prairie dog colonies in the north american great plains affect bird species and community composition. areas occupied by pra ... | 2013 | 23330695 |
| longspurs and snow buntings: phylogeny and biogeography of a high-latitude clade (calcarius). | using complete cytochrome b sequence data, we determined that the genus calcarius, as presently recognized, is paraphyletic. calcarius plus plectrophenax form a highly supported clade composed of two subclades, a "snow bunting" clade comprised of plectrophenax plus calcarius mccownii (formerly in the monotypic genus rhynchophanes), and a "collared" longspur clade of calcarius lapponicus, ornatus, and pictus. contrary to conventional thought, calcarius is not phylogenetically close to either cala ... | 2003 | 12565028 |
| ecological factors affecting the adrenocortical response to stress in chestnut-collared and mccown's longspurs (calcarius ornatus, calcarius mccownii). | secretion of the steroid hormone corticosterone (cort) in response to perturbations results in behavior patterns that can maximize survival. three commonly cited hypotheses suggest that during breeding, there are advantages associated with suppressed (cort) secretion in (1) the sex that is most important for parental care, (2) individuals in good body condition, and (3) species with a short breeding season and limited renesting opportunities. we addressed these hypotheses in two midlatitude bree ... | 2013 | 13130435 |
| songbird response to rest-rotation and season-long cattle grazing in a grassland sagebrush ecosystem. | grazing on natural rangelands, which are areas dominated by native vegetation that are used for livestock grazing, can achieve desired vegetation outcomes, preserve native habitat, and economically benefit multiple stakeholders. it is a powerful tool that can be manipulated to reduce wildlife declines and benefit ecosystems. however, the benefits of conservation grazing systems on many wildlife communities remain relatively unexplored. we compared songbird communities between two grazing systems ... | 2017 | 28946000 |
| adaptive rangeland management benefits grassland birds utilizing opposing vegetation structure in the shortgrass steppe. | rangelands are temporally and spatially complex socioecological systems on which the predominant land use is livestock production. in north america, rangelands also contain approximately 80% of remaining habitat for grassland birds, a guild of species that has experienced precipitous declines since the 1970s. while livestock grazing management may benefit certain grassland bird species by generating the vegetation structure and density they prefer, these outcomes are poorly understood for avian ... | 2020 | 31605648 |