Committee Chair

Aborn, David

Committee Member

McRae, Thaddeus; Hayes, Loren D.

Department

Dept. of Biological and Environmental Sciences

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Weather effects such as temperature and precipitation are known to affect reproductive success of many avian species. Weather variables can directly or indirectly influence the fledging success of nestlings. I investigated the effect of minimum temperature, maximum temperature, average temperature, maximum rainfall experienced in one day during a fledging period, and average daily rainfall on how long it takes tree swallow nestlings in Tennessee to fledge using multi-linear regression and linear mixed-effects modeling. I found that minimum temperatures, maximum temperatures, maximum rain experienced in a one-day period, and total rain all had a significant relationship on the time it takes for tree swallow chicks to fledge (p<0.05). The best model includes these weather variables and can account for about 20-21% of the variation seen in the time it takes tree swallow chicks to fledge.

Acknowledgments

First, I would like to thank my wife Haleigh. Her support carried me through my graduate experience much more than I could have accomplished alone. I would like to thank the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and their Nestwatch program. Without the contribution of the Nestwatch data, this project would have been less likely to make it off the ground. I would also like to thank my committee members, Drs. David Aborn, Thaddeus McRae, and Loren Hayes for providing their time, support, and knowledge towards my growth as an academic.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2023

Subject

Tree swallow--Effect of temperature on--Tennessee; Tree swallow--Infancy--Tennessee

Keyword

Tree Swallow; Weather; Fledging Times Changing

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

vii, 29 leaves

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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