Oil and gas development does not reduce duck pair abundance in the Prairie Pothole Region

Abstract

Conservation partners are concerned that oil and gas development in the Prairie Pothole Region may reduce the abundance of breeding duck pairs using associated wetland habitat. We conducted wetland-based surveys for breeding pairs of 5 species of dabbling ducks in the Bakken oil field during 2015–2017 across a gradient of oil and gas development intensity to test the hypothesis that the abundance of breeding duck pairs on survey wetlands would decrease as the development of oil and gas resources increased. We included covariates traditionally used to predict breeding duck pairs (i.e. wetland size and class) and a spatiotemporal index of disturbance when developing zero-inflated Poisson models relating pair abundance to environmental predictors. Similar to past analyses, pair abundance was strongly associated with wetland size. Our results were mixed and suggested that the abundance of early and late nesting species was positively and negatively related, respectively, to an index of disturbance that was largely driven by oil and gas development. Regardless of the direction of the relationship, effect sizes were small and not considered biologically significant. Our findings indicate that in our study area, strategies to conserve wetland resources for breeding duck pairs should not deviate from previous prioritization metrics within the range of oil and gas development we observed. We believe that our findings may have implications to similar landscapes within the Bakken.

Multiscale nest‐site selection of ducks in the western boreal forest of Alberta

“…While other evidence from North Dakota suggests a small negative effect of oil and gas development on brood abundance; however, the effect was only evident for a small percentage of the population (Kemink et al, 2019) and there was no evidence for pair avoidance during settling (Loesch et al, 2021).…”

“…In North Dakota's Bakken formation, nest survival was driven mostly by grassland cover and there was no effect detected from oil and gas development (Skaggs et al, 2020 ). While other evidence from North Dakota suggests a small negative effect of oil and gas development on brood abundance; however, the effect was only evident for a small percentage of the population (Kemink et al, 2019 ) and there was no evidence for pair avoidance during settling (Loesch et al, 2021 ).…”

Disturbance of wintering waterbirds by simulated road traffic noise in Arkansas wetlands

“…These data have indicated various responses of waterbirds to traffic noise, including a reduction in density for some species near road noise (e.g., northern shoveler [ Anas clypeata ], Eurasian coot [ Fulica atra ]; Reijnen et al 1996) and no response from others (e.g., tufted duck [ Aythya fuligula ], mute swan [ Cygnus olor ], northern shoveler; Reijnen et al 1996, black swan [ Cygnus atratus ]; Payne et al 2012). In these studies, the auditory stimulus of road traffic noise was not tested independently of the visual stimulus of the vehicle, and there is a tendency in the literature to infer the effects of noise on animals without explicitly testing noise levels (Pease et al 2005, Loesch et al 2021, McDuie et al 2021).…”