Mountain plover nest survival in relation to prairie dog and fire dynamics in shortgrass steppe

Abstract

Disturbed xeric grasslands with short, sparse vegetation provide breeding habitat for mountain plovers (Charadrius montanus) across the western Great Plains. Maintaining local disturbance regimes through prairie dog conservation and prescribed fire may contribute to the sustainability of recently declining mountain plover populations, but these management approaches can be controversial. We estimated habitatspecific mountain plover densities and nest survival rates on black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies and burns in the shortgrass steppe of northeastern Colorado. Mountain plover densities were similar on prairie dog colonies (5.9 birds/km 2 ; 95% CI ¼ 4.7-7.4) and sites burned during the preceding dormant season (6.7 birds/km 2 ; 95% CI ¼ 4.6-9.6), whereas the 29-day nest survival rate was greater on prairie dog colonies (0.81 in 2011 and 0.39 in 2012) compared to the burned sites (0.64 in 2011 and 0.17 in 2012). Reduced nest survival in 2012 compared to 2011 was associated with higher maximum daily temperatures in 2012, consistent with a previous weather-based model of mountain plover nest survival in the southern Great Plains. Measurements of mountain plover density relative to time since disturbance showed that removal of prairie dog disturbance by sylvatic plague reduced mountain plover density by 70% relative to active prairie dog colonies after 1 year. Plover densities declined at a similar rate (by 78%) at burned sites between the first and second post-burn growing season. Results indicate that black-tailed prairie dog colonies are a particularly important nesting habitat for mountain plovers in the southern Great Plains. In addition, findings suggest that prescribed burning can be a valuable means to create nesting habitat in landscapes where other types of disturbances (such as prairie dog colonies) are limited in distribution and size. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Semi‐arid grassland bird responses to patch‐burn grazing and drought

“…Few studies have examined this issue in more arid portions of the Great Plains where vegetation is considerably shorter and less productive, and hence the absolute magnitude of potential variation in vegetation structure is more limited. We previously showed that patch‐burn grazing management in the semi‐arid shortgrass steppe creates breeding habitat for the mountain plover ( Charadrius montanus ), a species of conservation concern in the region (Augustine and Derner , Augustine and Skagen ). However, patch‐burn grazing management can negatively affect local abundance of other bird species such as lark buntings and grasshopper sparrows (Augustine and Derner ).…”

The effects of management practices on grassland birds—Mountain Plover (<i>Charadrius montanus</i>)

“…Prairie dog towns are an important component of Mountain Plover habitat (Childers and Dinsmore, 2008;Augustine and Skagen, 2014). Prairie dog towns may provide greater food resources and more available prey for Mountain Plovers than areas outside of towns (Olson, 1985).…”

Patch-burn grazing management, vegetation heterogeneity, and avian responses in a semi-arid grassland

“…For a seventh species, the mountain plover, we lacked a sufficient number of detections to estimate the detection function. For this species, we used the detection function from a concurrent study that included point counts on a larger set of burns surveyed across Pawnee National Grassland during 2008-2012 (Augustine and Skagen 2014), and was based on >80 mountain plover detections. The suite of detection function models considered for mountain plovers did not include VO as a covariate, but >95% of the plover detections analyzed by Augustine and Skagen (2014), including all detections in this study, were in short (<4 cm), sparse vegetation on recent burns and prairie dog colonies.…”