On December 10, 2022 I went out to my field location on private property near Arnprior Ontario. While out there I made note of all bird species observed and compared it to the different habitats I was observing within the property. Habitats within the property contained a mix of anthropogenic disturbances and areas that had no human disturbances. The anthropogenic habitats included clearing of forests for recreational use such as recreational trails, and clearings for residential use where a home has been built. There are also areas on the property where no clearings due to human activity have occurred and the areas have been left natural. Since I own this private property and it has been in my family for generations, I can confirm the natural areas have in fact been left undisturbed for many years which gives me more insight to the ecology of the area and being able to categorize it as “natural.”
- I plan to focus my study on the diversity of bird species within human created open habitats (anthropogenic disturbance areas) compared to natural areas (areas where no human caused fragmentation has occurred). I chose to look at canopy cover as a way to compare these variables
- For my field study I chose 3 separate locations, one that was an entirely cleared area due to residential development, an area that was partially cleared by humans. This included a spruce and ash dominated forest that had a trail clearing though it creating a canopy cover of 30%. The third location was a natural area which included a forest with a 60% canopy cover and no human created disturbances in this area.
- My hypothesis is that anthropogenic clearings negatively impact the diversity of bird species. I predict that habitats with open canopies due to human disturbance will have less bird species present then those with over 50% canopy cover.
- The response variable is bird species and the predictor variable is percent canopy cover. The response variable of bird species is categorical since it is species of birds and the predictor variable is continuous due to it being a percentage.
Field notes from site visit on December 10, 2022.
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) and a male Hairy Woodpecker (Leuconotopicus villosus) observed within the mixed forest community.
Canopy cover of the human created recreational clearing within the mixed forest community.