Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Jones, C. Jeanna

Committee Member

Demarais, Stephen

Committee Member

Miller, A. Darren

Committee Member

Evans, L. David

Committee Member

Linder, T. Eric

Date of Degree

12-15-2007

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Forest Resources

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Forest Resources

Department

Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

Abstract

I evaluated effects of 5 treatments for pine plantation establishment on breeding and wintering birds and small mammals during years one through 5 post-treatment in the Lower Coastal Plain of Mississippi. I modeled relationships between 8 vegetation variables and avian abundance to identify influential habitat components in pine plantations. At the landscape scale, I compared avian abundance of regionally important species with land class variables in the Coastal Plain of Georgia. In pine plantations, species richness, total abundance, and 2 conservation bird metrics generally decreased with increasing intensity of stand establishment. Thus, this study suggests that increasing standmestablishment intensity can reduce avian habitat quality in Coastal Plain pine plantations. Presence of residual trees retained after timber harvest was the most influential variable related to avian abundance, and tree retention may reduce the negative impacts of intensive stand establishment on avian communities. There were minimal treatment effects on common small mammals of young pine plantations. For the Coastal Plain landscape, a mixture ofn area and edge variables were influential in avian models for 10 species, although area or edge each were important for 2 species. Hardwood forests were important vegetation types for all but one modeled species. Assessment of habitat conditions that affect avifauna and small mammals on managed timber production lands can assist natural resource managers with integration of timber production and conservation of biological diversity.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15590

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