| The primary purpose of this study was to use an exploratory approach to assess the relative strength of within-patch vegetation characteristics, within patch predator abundance and arthropod biomass, and landscape composition at four spatial scales (100 m, 500 m, 1000 m, and 2000 m) in predicting the density, pairing success, nest success, and productivity of Ovenbirds, Wood Thrush, and American Robins. A secondary objective of this study was to evaluate the degree to which conclusions regarding the influence of individual predictor variables were affected by cross-scale or cross-category correlations, even after removing significant within and between category correlations. Ovenbird reproduction was more strongly predicted by vegetation characteristics, Wood Thrush reproduction was most strongly associated with landscape composition within the 2000 m buffer, and American Robin reproduction was influenced by a combination of variables from all three categories. For all three focal species different reproductive parameters were best predicted by variables from different categories, and correlations between variables in each category were considerable for Ovenbirds and Wood Thrush. As such, management strategies should be species specific and consider both local and landscape scale features. |
