What is the appropriate paradigm for riparian forest conservation?
Rodewald, Amanda D; Bakermans, Marja H Rodewald, Amanda D. ; Ohio State Univ, Sch Nat Resources, 2021 Coffey Rd, Columbus, OH 43210 USA Biological Conservation 128 (2) : 193-200 MAR 2006 Because forest width is thought to be the most relevant metric to ecological communities, it has persisted as the dominant paradigm and focus of management recommendations for riparian forest conservation. Consequently, managers may overlook important effects of the surrounding landscape matrix. We determined if characteristics of the landscape matrix, particularly the amount of urban development surrounding a forest, were better predictors of bird communities than forest width. We sampled breeding-bird communities 3 times each June 2001-2004 in 33 riparian forest sites (69-565 m wide) in Ohio, USA. We examined if bird community structure and composition were more closely associated with forest width or the amount of urban development within 1 km of each forest using canonical correlation analysis.
