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Abstract

Measuring the spatial distribution of biotic communities can provide useful data to wildlife managers on how and why species assemblages differ across a landscape. During 18 May – 7 August 2015, we conducted avian point counts and collected vegetation data in nested subplots at 4 Arkansas state parks. We then used a series of one-way ANOVAs and Kruskal-Wallis tests to examine differences in species richness, Simpson’s evenness, Simpson’s diversity, and Bray-Curtis similarity across the 4 parks. Mount Magazine State Park had the lowest avian evenness (F3,22 = 9.57 P = 0.003) and diversity (F3,22 = 17.8 P ≤ 0.001). Mount Magazine also had the lowest understory vegetation evenness (F3,22 = 9.41 P ≤ 0.001) and diversity (F3,22 = 17.8 P ≤ 0.001). Our analyses provided weak evidence supporting a possible relationship between avian and understory woody vegetation communities at Mount Magazine; however, this relationship was not observed in the remaining parks. Comparing biotic communities across 4 local state parks may aid park managers by providing a baseline of biotic data that can be used to better understand the collective effects acting on a specific park’s flora and fauna.

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