Kimball Creek is a degraded Colorado stream that, like many western streams, has been impacted by cattle overgrazing, beaver eradication, and water diversion. Kimball Creek valley is primarily owned by the High Lonesome Ranch (HLR), and they are planning to restore the stream in the near future. Pre-restoration data has been gathered to assess the benefits of restoration and to understand how the degree of degradation impacts community structure and ecosystem function within the stream and the surrounding riparian area. Previous studies have highlighted how bird diversity is positively correlated with successful stream restoration, yet few studies have focused on how degradation per se impacts bird. We collected bird species abundance and diversity via point counts at 8 sites along the stream from 2011 – 2015 (n = 2750 birds) to test the hypothesis that species and functional guild diversity will be higher in less degraded sites.
Results/Conclusions
We used both richness and the Shannon Diversity Index to estimate the diversity for both species and functional guild. Preliminary results indicated that for both species and functional guild, there is a decrease in Shannon diversity from the least degraded site (Site 1; HSP = 3.16; HFG = 1.93) to the most degraded site (Site 8; HSP = 2.67; HFG = 1.44). Richness also declined among species from Site 1 (R = 41) to Site 8 (R = 33), but was similar among guilds between sites (Site 1: R = 12; Site 8: R = 10). These results indicate that degradation along Kimball Creek impacted the bird community in diversity and richness. Further analyses will be used to better understand how these trends vary across other sites along the stream. This research will also bolster evidence indicating the sensitivity of birds to anthropogenic disturbance and will be useful for future assessments of Kimball Creek post-restoration.