Bird community monitoring for Wupatki National Monument: 2014 summary report
Holmes JA and Johnson MJ. 2016. Bird community monitoring for Wupatki National Monument: 2014 summary report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/SCPN/NRDS—2016/1034. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
The National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program was designed to determine the current status and monitor long-term trends in the condition of park natural resources, providing park managers with a strong scientific foundation for making decisions and working with other agencies and the public for the protection of park ecosystems. The goal of bird community monitoring is to provide status and trends data on bird communities in several predominant habitats where integrated upland or riparian vegetation monitoring is also occurring. For Wupatki National Monument (WUPA), Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN) and monument staff selected grassland as an important ecosystem for vegetation and bird community monitoring. This habitat is largely composed of perennial grasses and shrubs, and covers a large area of the monument. The grassland habitat of WUPA’s upland bird community faces several threats, including climate change and the invasion of nonnative species. These threats have the potential to alter the composition and structure of the grasslands and affect the distribution and abundance of grassland bird species. In 2014, through a Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystems Study Unit agreement with SCPN, we continued monitoring the upland bird community of the target grassland habitat in WUPA, which had been initiated in 2008, and continued in 2011. In this report, we document monitoring activities in the 2014 field season and summarize the data that were collected.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Holmes, Jennifer; Johnson, Matthew
- Date of Issue
- 2016-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NRSS , SCPN , WUPA
- Keywords
- bird communities, bird habitat data, grasslands, variable circular plot counts
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Birds