Piping Plover (Charadrius Melodius) Conservation on the Barrier Islands of New York: Habitat Quality and Implications in a Changing Climate

摘要: PIPING PLOVER (CHARADRIUS MELODIUS) CONSERVATION ON THE BARRIER ISLANDS OF NEW YORK: HABITAT QUALITY AND IMPLICATIONS IN A CHANGING CLIMATE SEPTEMBER 2009 JENNIFER SEAVEY, B.S., LEWIS CLARK COLLEGE M.S., UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON Ph.D., MASSACHUSETTS Directed by: Professor Kevin McGarigal Habitat loss is the leading cause of species extinction. Protecting and managing habitat quality vital to an organism’s persistence, essential endangered recovery. We conducted investigation potential impacts from climate change piping plovers (Charadrius melodius) breeding on barrier island ecosystem New York, during 2003-2005. Our first step in this analysis was examined relationship between two common measures quality: density productivity (Chapter 1). used both central limiting tendency data find that significantly limited across many spatial scales, especially broader scales. plover 2) focused 1) identifying scaling their environment; determining relative importance four aspects environment (land cover, predation, management, disturbance); 3) key environmental variables influence productivity. found selection occurred within a narrow range scales