Publications by authors named "Molly E McDermott"
Article Synopsis
- - Birds in mixed-species flocks gain advantages like improved foraging and lower predation risks, but they also face challenges from competition and the need to match activities, and these dynamics differ based on environmental factors.
- - The study analyzed 84 flock networks in the Andes to see how factors like elevation, latitude, forest cover, and human disturbance influenced flock structure, discovering that elevation was the most significant factor affecting flock connectivity and cohesion.
- - Overall, Andean bird flocks were found to be mostly unstructured, but variations in structure were noted, particularly with higher elevation flocks being more connected, while those in areas with denser forest cover showed less cohesion and clearer flock subtypes.
Advanced timing of both seasonal migration and reproduction in birds has been strongly associated with a warming climate for many bird species. Phenological responses to climate linking these stages may ultimately impact fitness. We analyzed five decades of banding data from 17 migratory bird species to investigate 1) how spring arrival related to timing of breeding, 2) if the interval between arrival and breeding has changed with increasing spring temperatures, and 3) whether arrival timing or breeding timing best predicted local productivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLong-term climate impacts on breeding bird phenology in Pennsylvania, USA.
Glob Chang Biol
October 2016
Climate change is influencing bird phenology worldwide, but we still lack information on how many species are responding over long temporal periods. We assessed how climate affected passerine reproductive timing and productivity at a constant effort mist-netting station in western Pennsylvania using a model comparison approach. Several lines of evidence point to the sensitivity of 21 breeding passerines to climate change over five decades.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Forest cover in the eastern U.S. has increased, benefitting some late-successional species while others, like the cerulean warbler, are declining due to reduced small-scale disturbances such as fire and treefalls.
- An experimental study using partial timber harvest found that while cerulean warbler densities improved after disturbances, reproduction rates remained low, especially in southern regions.
- The findings suggest that managing disturbances needs to balance attracting cerulean warblers to improved habitats while being cautious of creating ecological traps, particularly in southern regions where the species currently thrives.