Habitat complexity and patch choice: spatiotemporal distribution of foraging shorebirds on intertidal sand flats
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- March 21, 2019
- Creator
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VanDusen, Beth Marie
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Curriculum in Environment and Ecology
- Abstract
- This early-winter study correlated patch- and landscape-level factors with spatial and temporal shorebird foraging patterns on four discrete, yet connected, intertidal sand flats in the New River Inlet, North Carolina, USA. Shorebirds were distributed non-randomly among flats, with major differences in abundance and species composition strongly correlated with the benthic macroinvertebrate community. Sediment characteristics added explanatory power; benthic macroinvertebrate community and sediment composition together explained two thirds of the variation in shorebird community patterns. Influence of landscape characteristics such as area-to-edge ratio of the flat and nature of the surrounding habitat (indicative of varying predation risk) likely contributed to the unexplained variation. Sedimentary influence was exemplified when probing shorebirds avoided a sand flat that contained large amounts of coarse material (gravel, shell). Significantly higher prey (polychaete) densities on this flat suggested that the coarse material acted as a refuge for infaunal prey by deterring probing shorebirds.
- Date of publication
- May 2010
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Advisor
- Peterson, Charles
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Language
- Access right
- Open access
- Date uploaded
- October 11, 2010
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