Branch Chief: Patty Stevens
FORT scientists in the Trust Species and Habitats branch conduct research and provide technical assistance on the ecology, habitat requirements, distribution, and abundance of trust species, including inventory and monitoring, development of reintroduction and restoration techniques, modifying or developing new statistical methods for data analyses, and utilizing technologies such as molecular genetics and stable isotopes to address a wide range of ecological questions.
A new paper in the journal Condor, authored by USGS scientists Janet Ruth, Robb Diehl, and others, describes how the authors used radar data and satellite land-cover data to identify the various habitats with which birds are associated during migration stopovers. Their results suggest that it is too simplistic to (1) consider the arid West as a largely inhospitable landscape in which there are only relatively small oases of habitat that provide the resources needed by all migrants; (2) think of western riparian and upland forests as supporting the majority of migrants in all cases, and (3) consider a particular habitat unimportant for stopover solely on the basis of low densities of migrants. Read the entire paper here.
Migrating birds’ use of stopover habitat in the southwestern United States
More Trust Species & Habitats Headlines
White-nose Syndrome Disease Tracking System (v.1)
The Genetic Structure of a Relict Population of Wood Frogs