Linking songbird nest predation to seedling density: Sugar maple masting as a resource pulse in a forest food web.

ABSTRACT: The ecological literature presents considerable evidence for top-down forcing on the maintenance of species diversity. Yet, in temperate forests, bottom-up forces often exert a strong influence on ecosystem functioning. Here, we report on the indirect influence of a pulsed resource, sugar maple (Acer saccharum) seed production, on nest survival in a migratory songbird. We hypothesized that seed production in year t would determine daily nest survival rate in year t + 1 through its effects on seed-eating rodents. We used the density of sugar maple seedlings (with cotyledons) in year t + 1 as a proxy for seed production in year t and predicted that it would be inversely related to songbird nest survival the same year. We estimated the density

SUBMITTER: Fiola ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5743542 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature