Will We Lose Our Songbirds

Author : Tayler M. Scherr
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (193 download)

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Download or read book Taming the Temperature written by Tayler M. Scherr and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The climate is changing at a rapid, unprecedented pace with some of the warmest years on record having occurred since 2001. Further, human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) – or the alteration of an organisms’ environment at a pace too rapid for organisms to track evolutionarily – is an increasing problem for many ecosystems and can lead to species declines if they fail to adapt quickly enough. Although much research has begun to focus on the effects of HIREC, few ecosystems are plagued by a single form of HIREC, particularly given the widespread effects of climate change. Therefore, a better understanding of the individual, additive, and/or synergistic effects of multiple forms of HIREC and how species may be able to plastically respond to modulate the effects will better inform management and conservation efforts under multiple stressors. We examined what habitat characteristics most affected temperature at the nest site. We then assessed to what extent the three sagebrush-obligate songbirds spanning a range of body sizes selected nest sites on the basis of temperature in an arid ecosystem in western Wyoming at two spatial scales. We further investigated whether a known nest predation-risk gradient and ambient conditions modulated temperature-based choices. The two smaller-bodied species, the Brewer’s Sparrow and the Sagebrush Sparrow, selected nest sites that were warmer and less variable relative what was available on average, whereas Sage Thrashers generally did not select nest sites on the basis of temperature. When ambient temperatures were higher during the nestsite prospecting period, however, both Brewer’s Sparrows and Sage Thrashers dampened selection for warmer nest sites in a context-dependent manner. None of the three species altered nest-site selection with respect to temperature in response to either temperature variability or our index of nest predation risk. Collectively, our results suggest that nest site selection may be one method by which birds are able to modulate temperature moving forward, albeit the degree to which this is possible will be dependent on the rate and extent of on-going climate change. This work highlights the importance of maintaining habitat heterogeneity across landscapes to maintain diverse microrefugia for organisms. Moreover, it is critical to prescribe species-specific management prescriptions whenever possible, as our results demonstrated that although sagebrush-obligate songbirds are often managed similarly, here we found species-specific patterns of nest-site selection. An important next step is to determine how temperature and habitat loss may work independently, additively, and/or synergistically to effect reproductive fitness metrics directly or indirectly. Songbirds may be able to further modulate temperature at the nest site via parental care during the incubation and nestling periods, but the extent to which this occurs is largely unknown. Given the outlook for extreme weather and increased variability, developing a more thorough understanding of how multiple stressors may affect fitness outcomes will allow managers to develop recommendations to benefits the physiological needs of avian species. This work thus far has demonstrated the importance of considerations at a species-specific level, and further research to determine if that pattern carries through to reproductive fitness outcomes is critical to better mitigate the potential effects of habitat loss and extreme weather moving forward.