Ph.D. in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation
Ecology and Conservation of Shrubland Birds
makresh at eco.umass.edu
Ag. Engineering Annex A
Research and Teaching Assistant
US Forest Service, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Blodget Fund,Wilson Ornithological Society, American Ornithologists’ Union, Cooper Ornithological Society, Gerace Research Centre, and American Wildlife Conservation Foundation
Dr. David King
Early-successional, scrub-shrub habitats have been recently declining in the northeastern United States due to fire suppression, silviculture, and development. Pitch pine-scrub oak (PPSO) barrens and utility right-of-ways represent two habitats that are actively managed as early-successional habitat and appear to provide habitat for declining prairie warblers (Dendroica discolor) and other shrubland bird specialists.
The objectives of the study are to assess current habitat management and provide detailed information on the ecology and conservation of scrub-shrub birds in managed PPSO barrens and utility rights-of-way. Our focus will primarily be on prairie warblers, a high priority bird species in the northeast. We will be examining the effects of management on prairie warbler abundance, age composition, dispersal, and reproductive success in different habitats. We will also be examining habitat characteristics and other factors affecting nest success and nest-site selection of prairie warblers.
We are also beginning new research on prairie warblers in their non-breeding habitat in the Caribbean. Migratory bird populations are dependent on numerous sites along their migration routes, and understanding habitat quality in both the non-breeding and breeding habitats is crucial to conserving migratory bird populations. We will investigate prairie warbler territoriality and habitat use on the wintering grounds, as well as attempt to examine carry-over effects between non-breeding and breeding habitats using stable isotope analysis.
Akresh, M. E., and D. I. King. Submitted. Observations of new bird species for San Salvador Island, The Bahamas. Caribbean Naturalist.
Byers, B. E., M. E. Akresh, and D. I. King. Submitted. Consistent, rapid singing predicts a proxy of social mate choice in a population of prairie warblers. Behavioral Ecology.
Akresh, M. E., D. I. King, and R. T. Brooks. 2015. Demographic response of a shrubland bird to habitat creation, succession, and disturbance in a dynamic landscape. Forest Ecology and Management 336:72-80.
Jones, T. M., M. E. Akresh, and D. I. King. 2013. Recent sightings of Kirtland’s Warblers on San Salvador Island, The Bahamas. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 125:637-642.
Byers, B. E., B. A. Kramer, M. E. Akresh, and D. I. King. 2013. Interspecific song imitation by a Prairie Warbler. Journal of Field Ornithology 84:181-186.
Riba-Hernandez, L., M. E. Akresh, W. Hernandez, and D. Martinez. 2012. A nocturnal flight record of Swainson’s Hawks (Buteo swainsoni) and Turkey Vultures (Cathartes Aura) during fall migration in Costa Rica. Journal of Raptor Research 46:234-235.
King, D. I., S. Schlossberg, R. T. Brooks, and M. E. Akresh. 2011. Effects of fuel reduction on birds in pitch pine–scrub oak barrens of the United States. Forest Ecology and Management 261:10-18.
Akresh, M. E., K. Dinse, J. Foufopoulos, S. C. Schubel, and T. Kowalczyk. 2009. Passerine breeding and post-fledgling habitat use in riparian and upland temperate forests of the American Midwest. The Condor 111:756-762.
Updated: November 18, 2014