Date of Award

Summer 1981

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biological Sciences

Program/Concentration

Biology

Committee Director

Robert K. Rose

Committee Member

Robert L. Ake

Committee Member

Gerald Levy

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.B46 T397

Abstract

Breeding birds were censused during two years in two Atlantic white cedar stands of the Great Dismal Swamp, and a comparison was made with census results of the predominant swamp community, maple-gum. The maple-gum site had a higher bird species diversity than either cedar site but supported only half the density. The century-old cedar site had the highest species richness while the younger cedar site had the highest density.

Cluster analysis placed the avifauna into distinct groups which closely corresponded to the vegetative strata of the stands. Species were ordered along the height gradient using principal coordinate and detrended correspondence analysis and produced results similar to those of clustering. Species distributions within the stands were not significantly different, but general trends indicated a heavier use below 8 m at the Forest Line Site, while the Camp Site showed a more evenly distributed utilization up into higher intervals. Species distribution in the cedar sites was concentrated in the lower strata while the maple-gum showed a top-heavy distribution in which almost half of the species used the canopy layer. Distributional differences were attributed to stand structure. The cedar stands were found to support twice the number of unique species.

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DOI

10.25777/hmna-2m72

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