PARENT SESSION
Oral Session - Quantitative Relationships Between Landscape Processes and Patterns and Wildlife - Morning Session Chair(s): Robinson, Vincent¹, ¹ University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada
Friday, April 2, 2004 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Apollo Room 1-2

Spatial and temporal analysis of avian response to marsh restoration in the New Jersey Meadowlands. ^*SEIGEL, ALISON B. ¹, HATFIELD, COLLEEN A. ² and HARTMAN, JEAN MARIE ³, ¹ Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, New Brunswick, NJ, USA² Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, New Brunswick, NJ, USA³ Dept. of Landscape Architecture, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

ABSTRACT- Harrier Meadow is a 31.4 ha tidal marsh surrounded by a highly urbanized matrix. Prior to restoration, Harrier Meadow was a relatively homogeneous habitat dominated by Phragmites australis. Through restoration, tidal influence was reestablished and habitat heterogeneity was significantly increased. The avian community at the marsh was monitored for two years pre-restoration and four years post-restoration. This provided a rare opportunity to study avian response to restoration, as pre-restoration data is not commonly available. Prior to restoration, the breeding bird community was similar throughout the marsh and showed little interannual variability. During the years following restoration, avian species richness increased and guild structure changed dramatically, reflecting changes in habitat structure and resource availability. Non-metric multidimensional scaling was used to ordinate and track changes in the avian community through space and time. Community composition in sample areas was similar within years, indicating that birds showed site fidelity and were able to perceive within-site habitat heterogeneity. However, avian community composition within point count areas showed high interannual variability in response to the dynamic nature of habitat development after restoration.

KEY WORDS: habitat restoration, tidal marsh, ordination, avian community structure