Graduation Date
Summer 2023
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Master of Science degree with a major in Natural Resources, option Wildlife
Committee Chair Name
Matthew Johnson
Committee Chair Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Micaela Szykman Gunther
Second Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Third Committee Member Name
Ho Yi Wan
Third Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Subject Categories
Wildlife
Abstract
Harnessing ecosystem services, broadly defined as the benefits nature gives to people, is one approach to minimize the widespread negative impacts of agriculture on wildlife and biodiversity conservation. Conservation biological control is one such service that aims to use natural enemies to reduce crops losses from pests without the use of harmful pesticides, including rodenticides. In Napa Valley, California, human-made nest boxes are deployed on wine grape vineyards to attract barn owls (Tyto furcata) that depredate and remove thousands of rodent pests throughout the nesting season. However, the provisioning of this ecosystem service depends on whether a box is occupied and where on the landscape the owls are hunting. In this thesis, I used predictive occupancy models to show that barn owls prefer to occupy nest boxes surrounded by high proportions of grassland, and they prefer to hunt near their nest boxes, near oak savanna habitat, and in areas with a low habitat aggregation. A map of these models combined shows the hunting pressure by the owls in the study site’s vineyards. By mapping the provisioning of ecosystem services, landowners can be better informed on how land cover and nest box deployment affect the provisioning of rodent pest removal in their vineyard agroecosystems.
Citation Style
Journal of Wildlife Management
Recommended Citation
Chavez, Samantha D., "Effects of landscape configuration metrics on American barn owl nest box occupancy and hunting" (2023). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 681.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/681