Human activities are the primary drivers altering the distribution and abundance of species on the planet. Understanding how human activities affect species' distribution is difficult because of the complexity of social and political considerations and processes that influence decisions about where, how, and which activities occur. Exurbanization, or low-density residential development beyond the urban fringe, can rearrange the landscape into novel habitat patterns that potentially alter the local or regional structure and pattern of wildlife communities. Understanding the impacts of exurbanization is critical as it is the most common land-use change in the United States and, increasingly, the world. The goal of this research is to examine how individual land ethics, and land-use decisions, operating within a regional land-use context, shape human impacts on biological communities, and how understanding this relationship can lead to better management and, potentially, ecologically healthier landscapes. This study will investigate three integrated research questions using a combination of social and ecological methods. 1) How do bird community structure and reproductive success relate to individual landowner ethics and land-use practices in an exurban context? 2) Are bird community characteristics controlled more by localized human disturbances or by overall habitat structure? and 3) What is the extent to which the magnitude of these disturbance effects in diverse landscapes can be explained by the overall connectivity and resilience of the encompassing regions? Researchers will conduct a study to examine the effects of exurban development on bird communities in two structurally different habitat types, forest and shrubland/grassland mosaic, across two ecosystems at sites in the Adirondack Park of upstate New York and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of southwestern Montana.
Research in two distinctly different regions facing exurban development will produce results that will inform how impacts from exurban development are addressed. The results will assist resource managers in minimizing the negative impacts of land use change on natural systems, contribute to predicting which types of landscapes may be more vulnerable to human perturbations, and will inform policies and recommendations to maximize biological integrity in human dominated landscapes. Understanding the relative importance of local homeowner practices when compared with broader habitat and land management characteristics in shaping wildlife communities will lead to insights for the planning and management of this rapidly growing but poorly understood form of residential development.
