| Abstract: |
Landscape ecologists have long recognized that the distribution and abundance of landscape resources influence the diversity and richness of critical natural resources. In addition, it is often easier to map and monitor the landscape than it is to survey each natural resource; however, this requires an understanding of the relationship between the landscape composition and the resource of interest. Land cover was mapped within the boundaries of the Narragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on Prudence Island, RI and the data were organized into a geographic information system (GIS) database. The primary objective of this study was to determine how landscape composition was related to the community structure of breeding birds on Prudence Island. Three different spatial scales of land cover were examined to determine which one was most appropriate for defining bird-habitat relationships. Principal components analysis, classification trees, and analysis of similarities were also conducted to determine habitats that individual bird species were selecting. While some species could be adequately characterized using broad scale structural class data, the majority of bird species responded to the finest scale, or habitat level, of land cover. |