Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The global increase in anthropogenically-driven shifts of land cover has resulted in losses to many natural communities such as prairies and wetlands. These ecosystems take on artificially-derived characteristics such as croplands, buildings, and roads to the extent that they no longer resemble the areas they once were. This process often results in the loss of biodiversity, ecological integrity, and valuable ecosystem services in these environments. Attempts to restore the condition and function of these disturbed areas are often implemented, but due to the complexity of factors driving these restorations, there is often a lack of practical insight needed to optimize the process. To explore this issue, I examined sites on two restoration projects from 2019-2021, a bottomland hardwood forest (BHF) wetland restoration in Western Kentucky (n=9) and an urban greening project in Louisville, KY (n=130). In each restoration, I used point counts to assess bird diversity as a means of quantifying current ecological condition. I then built sets of generalized linear models to measure the response of diversity metrics to a variety of local- and landscape-scale predictors collected through ground sampling and GIS. Based on significant predictors in the top models of GLM sets, diversity in each restoration was driven by similar factors. Urban sites with higher NDVI within 250m and those closer to large green spaces (25+ acres) were more diverse, and restored wetlands were more diverse when there was higher proportions of forests and lower proportions of cropland within 250m. Based on my results, wetland restorations need to create patches of BHF at least 250m in radius (~50 acres) to adequately support bird diversity, and urban greening should strategically focus on creating or expanding green spaces to at least 25 acres to prevent restorations from being colonized largely by urban generalist species.

Year manuscript completed

2025

Year degree awarded

2025

Author's Keywords

urban, wetland, bird diversity, modeling, bottomland hardwood forest, urban greening

Degree Awarded

Master of Science

Department

Biology

College/School

Jesse D. Jones College of Science, Engineering and Technology

Thesis Advisor

Andrea K. Darracq

Committee Member

Michael B. Flinn

Committee Member

Howard H. Whiteman

Document Type

Thesis

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