LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE AND SPATIAL SCALE AFFECT SPACE USE BY SONGBIRDS IN NATURALLY PATCHY AND HARVESTED BOREAL FORESTS

Abstract

Abstract Knowledge of how landscape structure influences patterns of animal space use is critical to developing sustainable landscape management practices. For breeding songbirds that defend a territory embedded within a larger home range, effects of structural change on movement may be manifested at multiple spatial scales. We used radio-telemetry to assess within-territory and home range space use as functions of the proportion of clearcut-harvested versus naturally unforested land for two species of Neotropical migrant songbirds. We tested whether these relationships varied with spatial scale by assessing landscape structure in both the local neighborhood (115 m radius around an individual's territory center) and across the landscape (1250 m radius). Territory size for riparian-associated male Northern Waterthrushes (Seiurus noveboracensis) was curvilinearly related to the proportion of harvested versus naturally unforested land and varied by greater than two orders of magnitude. Waterthrush territorie...