Tamarix as Habitat for Birds: Implications for Riparian Restoration in the Southwestern United States
By M. Sogge, S. Sferra, E. Paxton. 2008
191 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Exotic vegetation has become a major habitat component in many ecosystems around the world, sometimes dramatically changing the vegetation community structure and composition. In the southwestern United States, riparian ecosystems are undergoing major changes in part due to the establishment and spread of the exotic Tamarix (saltcedar, tamarisk). There are concerns about the suitability of Tamarix as habitat for birds. Although Tamarix habitats tend to support fewer species and individuals than native habitats, Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas data and Birds of North America accounts show that 49 species use Tamarix as breeding habitat. Importantly, the relative use of Tamarix and its quality as habitat vary substantially by geographic location and bird species. Few studies have examined how breeding in Tamarix actually affects bird survivorship and productivity; recent research on Southwestern Willow Flycatchers has found no negative effects from breeding in Tamarix habitats. Therefore, the ecological benefits and costs of Tamarix control are difficult to predict and are likely to be species specific and site specific. Given the likelihood that high‐quality native riparian vegetation will not develop at all Tamarix control sites, restoration projects that remove Tamarix but do not assure replacement by high‐quality native habitat have the potential to reduce the net riparian habitat value for some local or regional bird populations. Therefore, an assessment of potential negative impacts is important in deciding if exotic control should be conducted. In addition, measurable project objectives, appropriate control and restoration techniques, and robust monitoring are all critical to effective restoration planning and execution.
Subfields: Ecology, Nature and Landscape Conservation
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/098ac3a3f88698a0b87563c01e011e0a31c035f9
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Citations in the corpus
- Changing Perceptions of Change: The Role of Scientists in Tamarix and River Management (2009, background): “In such cases, Sogge et al. (2008) concluded that maintaining Tamarix is a logical approach to riparian bird conservation.”
- A Unified Classification of Alien Species Based on the Magnitude of their Environmental Impacts (2014, background): “However, many alien species apparently have had little or no detectable effects on their new environment [1,10,11], and some effects may be considered to be positive [12–16].”
- The Potential Conservation Value of Non‐Native Species (2011, result): “Nevertheless, results of recent field studies reveal that in some areas up to 75% of the Southwestern Willow Flycatchers nest in tamarisk and that fledgling success associated with nests built in tamarisk was indistinguishable from success associated with nests built in native trees (Ellis et al. 20”
- Framework and guidelines for implementing the proposed IUCN Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) (2015, background): “Nevertheless, impacts vary greatly among alien taxa and among ecosystems, habitats or native species in the recipient geographic range; many notable impacts only become obvious or significantly influential long after the onset of invasion (Williamson & Fitter, 1996; Graves & Shapiro, 2003; Sogge et ”