Initial comparison of bird communities of three southern forested wetlands

Abstract

The Southern Forested Wetlands Initiative (SFWI), an interagency team of scientists from the National Biological Service, the USDA Forest Service. the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Geological Survey, is cooperating to characterize the major biological. chemical. and physical functions of southern BLH forests. This interagency team selected three relatively undisturbed BLH forest tracts 320 ha for study. Four hypotheses will be tested with data from this long-tenn field study: a) bird community composition of extensive BI.JI systems is independent of plant community composition; b) bird community composition of extensive BI.JI systems is independent of geographical and floodplain location; c) bird community dynamics and population trends of individual species are independent of location; and d) bird community dynamics and individual species population trends are in equilibrium in these systems. Our initial summary allows us to identify the long-tenn hypotheses we will test in this study, and to indicate the sorts of data we have gathered in the first year.

Citation

Hamel, Paul B.; Barrow, Wylie C. Jr.; Fischer, Richard A.; Guilfoyle, Michael P.; Spengler, Terry J.; Wakeley, James S. 1996. Initial comparison of bird communities of three southern forested wetlands. In: Flynn, Kathryn M., ed. Proceedings of the southern forested wetlands ecology and management conference; 1996 March 25-27; Clemson, SC: 170-175.