- Link:
- http://hdl.handle.net/2148/689
- Collection:
-
- Subjects
- Catharus ustulatus Cormack-Jolly-Seber El Niño-Southern Oscillation Migration Precipitation Residency Survival Swainson’s Thrush Wing chord variation
- Creator:
- LaManna, Joseph Anthony
- Contributor:
- George, T. Luke
- Publisher
- Humboldt State University
- Type
- Thesis
- Language
- en_US
- Description
- Global climate cycles can affect demographic rates
and drive local and regional dynamics of bird populations.
Local-scale studies of individual species have identified
associations between the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and
survival rates and productivity of birds. Broad-scale studies of
demography and climate are needed to better understand the effects
of climate throughout the life cycle. I examined the impact of
broad-scale climate indices on apparent survival of Russet-backed
Swainson's Thrush (Catharus ustulatus ustulatus) captured on their
breeding grounds in western North America (N = 10,870). I developed
69 a priori models that included effects of ENSO, the North
Atlantic Oscillation, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, latitude,
region, and residency status on survival and compared their QAICc
scores using program MARK. The most parsimonious model included an
ENSO effect, a regional effect, and a residency effect on survival
and was 44 times more supported than the nested model that did not
incorporate ENSO. ENSO had a significantly positive effect on
survival probability, was significantly correlated with
precipitation anomalies in the migratory and winter range, and was
positively associated with variation in wing chord. These results
suggest that survival of this Neotropical migrant is influenced by
ENSO-related precipitation variability in its winter range,
migratory pathway, or both. If, as some climate models predict,
annual variation in ENSO increases, Russet-backed Swainson's
Thrushes may suffer greater variation in annual survival. Directly
associating climate with key demographic parameters provides a
powerful approach to predicting a species' response to
climate-change.
- Description
- Thesis (M.S.)--Humboldt State University, Natural
Resources: Wildlife, 2010
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