Distribution of priority grassland bird habitats in the Prairie Pothole Region of Canada

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Grassland ecosystems and the species that rely on them are one of the most urgent habitat conservation concerns in North America. Fundamental to any landscape conservation efforts is the identification of priority habitats to help target management efforts. Many avian species associated with prairie ecosystems have experienced population declines along with continued loss of prairie habitats. Additionally, given the long history of research in avian systems and the close grassland associations of some species, birds are excellent candidate taxa for the identification of priority habitats and can provide an informed starting point for multispecies assessments. We used data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (1997Survey ( -2014 to develop species distribution models for 15 grassland bird species across the Prairie Pothole Region of Canada. Model performance varied widely across species. Ten species demonstrated good model performance (average Boyce Index > 0.64 across 5-fold cross validation). We used these 10 species to assess the influence of habitat covariates on the relative probability of occurrence, to compare the spatial scales of selection, and to generate multispecies habitat priority maps. Of the nine habitat covariates considered, most species predictably demonstrated positive associations with grassland habitats and avoidance of areas of high tree and shrub cover. Two covariates representing wetland abundance were also frequently included in the top models. The area covered by wetlands (w.area) was present in the top model for 5 of 10 species with a consistently estimated negative coefficient. However, a covariate, which represented the number of wetland basins (w.basins), was present in the top model for 8 of 10 species with an estimated positive coefficient for all but 1 species, representing a preference for more heterogeneous wetland landscapes. The larger spatial scales we considered tended to have greater explanatory power than smaller spatial scales and were thus more prevalent in the top models. The multispecies priority habitat maps that we produced can be used for future assessments of potential habitat management actions. Our work provides a critical foundation for the incorporation of grassland bird conservation goals into on-going landscape-planning initiatives in the Prairie Pothole Region of Canada. Répartition de milieux prioritaires pour la conservation d'oiseaux de prairie dans la région des cuvettes des Prairies au CanadaRÉSUMÉ. Les écosystèmes de prairie et les espèces qui en dépendent représentent une des préoccupations de conservation d'habitat les plus importantes en Amérique du Nord. Au moment d'établir les activités d'aménagement, la détermination des milieux prioritaires est fondamentale à tout effort de conservation de paysages. De nombreuses espèces aviaires associées aux écosystèmes de prairie ont subi des baisses de population et des pertes continuelles d'habitat. De plus, étant donné la longue tradition de recherche en ornithologie et l'association étr...

Species‐Habitat Relationships and Priority Areas for Marsh‐Breeding Birds in Ontario

“…The LCD has been applied previously to create decision‐support tools (e.g., maps) to identify priority areas for conservation of marsh‐breeding birds in the Canadian Prairies (Forcey et al 2007, Prairie Habitat Joint Venture 2014), the Prairie Pothole Region of the United States (Forcey et al 2011, 2014, 2015), and the Upper Mississippi River and Great Lakes Joint Venture Region (Thogmartin et al 2011, Soulliere et al 2018). It has also been applied to other bird species (Thogmartin et al 2004, 2007) and species groups (Thogmartin et al 2006, 2014; Thogmartin and Rohweder 2008; Fedy et al 2018), but to our knowledge it has not been applied in Ontario. The LCD is expected to focus regional wetland conservation work in areas where it will have the best return on investment because clusters of targeted marshes are more easily acquired for conservation, restoration, and implementation of management actions simply because of their closeness (e.g., common landowner for multiple marshes or efficiencies in moving equipment between marshes).…”

Habitat selection and space use of Upland Sandpipers at nonbreeding grounds

“…However, most managed grasslands have not been developed to promote and provide the habitat for coexisting species with different habitat requirements. Instead, conversion of native grasslands to croplands has resulted in loss of habitat for many grassland birds (Vickery et al 1999, Brennan and Kuvlesky 2005, Isacch and Cardoni 2011, Azpiroz et al 2012, Codesido et al 2013, Fedy et al 2018. Loss of habitat could have severe consequences on the annual survival of Upland Sandpipers, and other migratory or resident species dependent on grassland ecosystems.…”

“…Consequently, a complete understanding of habitat use should consider the evaluation of patterns and processes at multiple ecological and spatial scales (Johnson 1980, Mysterud and Ims 1998, Ribic et al 2009. Moreover, human activities related to land use, such as livestock grazing, agricultural production and forestry, and urbanization, have produced large changes in many features of landscape structure (Brennan and Kuvlesky 2005, Baldi and Paruelo 2008, Isacch and Cardoni 2011, Azpiroz et al 2012, Fedy et al 2018. Land-use and land-cover change likely impact migratory species that use features of the landscape to orient and find specific sites during migration and at breeding and nonbreeding grounds (Huston 1998, Lindström 2007).…”

Survival and habitat selection of wood duck ducklings

“…We developed resource selection function models (RSFs) for habitat selection using logistic regression (Boyce et al , Manly et al , Johnson et al , Fedy et al ). We used the top‐ranked model to predict spatially across the region to identify high probability use areas for successful wood duck broods.…”

“…2002, Manly et al 2002, Johnson et al 2006, Fedy et al 2018. We used the top-ranked model to predict spatially across the region to identify high probability use areas for successful wood duck broods.…”