Date: October 19, 2018
Source: University of Illinois College of
Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
The
prairies of North America once covered vast stretches of land, with towering
grasses creating ideal nesting and forage habitat for grassland birds. But the
deep, rich soil and treeless expanse also represented the ideal conditions for
farming -- both row crops and cattle grazing -- in the eyes of settlers. Today,
largely thanks to agricultural conversion, a mere 1 percent of tallgrass
prairie remains. And what's left is now being threatened by invasive species
and forest encroachment.
"With
grasslands in steep decline, the birds that depend on them are also
disappearing. Therefore, it is urgent that we understand how these more recent
changes -- invasive species and landscape shifts -- influence grassland bird
reproduction," says Scott Maresh Nelson, a doctoral student advised by
Professor Jim Miller in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental
Sciences (NRES) at the University of Illinois.
In a
recent study published in Landscape Ecology, Maresh Nelson and his
colleagues found that a common cattle forage grass, tall fescue, is associated
with nest failure in dickcissels, small grassland birds similar to sparrows.
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