About

Jacquelyn Grace, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology at Texas A&M University. Her research and teaching interests focus on animal ecology, physiology, and behavior. Her work addresses the significant challenge of understanding the proximate and ultimate mechanisms underlying animal responses to environmental change, with the goal of predicting future population dynamics and designing effective conservation management techniques. She serves as a Review Editor for Frontiers in Bird Science, a Guest Editor for Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (Research Topic: Conservation Physiology), and co-Chair of the Avian Health Working Group for the Gulf of Mexico Avian Monitoring Network.

Research topics

• Geography
• Biology
• Ecology

Selected publications

• Secondhand homes: Woodpecker cavity location and structure influences secondary nester’s success.

  Authorea (Authorea) · 2020

  • Ecology
  • Geography
  • Biology

  1. Understanding how ecosystem engineers influence other organisms has long been a goal of ecologists. Woodpeckers select nesting sites with high food availability and will excavate and then abandon multiple cavities throughout their lifetime. These cavities are crucial to secondary cavity nesting birds (SCB) that are otherwise limited by the availability of naturally occurring cavities. 2. Our study examined the influence of food resources on the nest site location and home-range size of woodpeckers, and the subsequent influence of woodpeckers on the nesting success of SCB. 3. Using five years of avian point count data to locate golden-fronted woodpeckers (GFWO), we correlated insect availability with GFWO home range size, determined differences in insect availability between GFWO occupied and unoccupied sites, and compared nesting success for the GFWO and common SCB in south Texas. We used model averaging to fit species-specific logistic regression models to predict nest success based on cavity metrics across all species. 4. Sites occupied by GFWO had a higher biomass of insects in orders Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Orthoptera than unoccupied sites, and there was a negative correlation between the availability of these insect orders and home-range size. GFWO nest success increased with vegetation cover and lower levels of tree decay. SCB had higher levels of nesting success in abandoned GFWO, and in trees with lower levels of nest tree decay. 5. Our results suggest that SCB may be drawn to nest in abandoned woodpecker cavities where they have higher rates of nest success compared to natural cavities. Additionally, the prevalence for GFWO to excavate cavities in trees with lower levels of decay contradicts previous literature, and may indicate a novel temperature trade-off, with live trees requiring more energy to excavate, but providing increased protection from high breeding season temperatures in arid and semi-arid areas.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• David J. Anderson

  Glenn Research Center

  1 shared

• Michael Morrison

  University of New England

  1 shared

• David P. Craig

  Willamette University

  1 shared

• David J. Anderson

  1 shared

• Brian L. Pierce

  Texas A&M University

  1 shared

• Tyler A. Campbell

  East Foundation

  1 shared

• Samantha Leivers

  Texas A&M University

  1 shared

• Faith O. Hardin

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  1 shared

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