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.
Recommended Citation
Grooms, Bennett P. and Urbanek, Rachael E.
(2017)
"Local Scale Comparisons of Avian and Woody Vegetation Communities within Four Arkansas State Parks,"
Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 71, Article 24.
https://doi.org/10.54119/jaas.2017.7101
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol71/iss1/24
Included in
Biodiversity Commons, Biology Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Ornithology Commons
