LanguageTerm (authority = ISO 639-3:2007); (type = text)
English
Abstract (type = abstract)
Grassland birds are experiencing persistent population declines in North America and elsewhere. Protected grasslands are rare, and private grasslands are increasingly unsuitable due to intensive agricultural practices. Federal private-lands conservation programs (‘land sharing’ approaches) are the primary conservation tool, but as populations continue to decline, calls for reform have increased. In this dissertation, I explore ways to improve land sharing conservation efforts for grassland birds at three spatial scales: farm, regional, and continental. First, I evaluate a novel conservation practice within active hayfields designed to increase habitat suitability during the post-harvest period. Next, I develop an empirical social-ecological systems model to evaluate how conservation spending, climate, and farm management interact to influence population fluctuations in a grassland bird species in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. Lastly, I identify regions of increasing agricultural or climate impacts on grassland birds by investigating continental scale changes in the geography of spatial population synchrony. Approaches developed here have global applicability in the effort to conserve biodiversity in the face of expanding agricultural and climatic impacts.
Subject (authority = LCSH)
Topic
Grassland birds -- Conservation -- North America
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Ecology and Evolution
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_10107
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (x, 118 pages) : illustrations
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
School of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10001600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
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