Northern pintail nest site selection, nest success, renesting ecology and survival in the intensively farmed prairies of southern Saskatchewan: an evaluation of the ecological trap hypothesis

Unlike most prairie nesting ducks (Anas spp.), the North American population of northern pintails (A. acuta, hereafter pintails) has failed to respond as expected to improved wetland conditions on the U.S. and Canadian prairies during the mid to late 1990s. My primary objectives were to test the “ecological trap hypothesis” on a landscape level by examining pintail nest site selection and nest success in a highly agricultural environment in southern Saskatchewan. I also used radiotelemetry to estimate renesting and breeding season survival rates of female pintails; two parameters that are important in productivity and life cycle models. Most (51%) pintail nests were found in crop stubble and generally pintails nested in habitats in proportion to their availability on the landscape. In contrast, most (82%) mallard nests were located in edge and grassland habitats. Mallards nested in habitats with dense cover in greater proportion to their availability and avoided crop stubble. Nest success estimates in crop stubble were lower (\u3c1-4% vs. 6-37%) than the surrounding habitats with greater cover. Nest success estimates in crop stubble were abysmal largely due to high rates of nest predation. Only 20-33% of nests in crop stubble failed due to spring cultivation. For 1998, 1999, and 2000, overall renesting rates for females trapped throughout the nesting season were 50%, 71%, and 41%, but were 61%, 90% and 62% when only first nesting females were included. Renesting propensity declined seasonally, but at different rates among years likely due to variation in wetland abundance. Most (58%) females renested, but few (37%) initiated multiple renests. Survival rate for my 75-day interval (April 30 – 14 July) was 0.81 ± 0.05. Cause-specific mortality rates were greater for avian predators (0.14 ± 0.04) than other sources of mortality. The pintail’s high propensity to nest in crop stubble where nest success is low coupled with lower renesting and breeding season survival rates than mallards may partially explain their meager response to improved wetland conditions. Management programs to facilitate pintail recovery should be targeted at increasing nest success by providing safe nesting habitat

Analytical and statistical review of procedures for collection and analysis of commercial fishery data used for management and assessment of groundfish stocks in the U.S. exclusive economic zone off Alaska

Effective management of multi-species fisheries requires reliable estimates of the amount and composition of catch and bycatch. In this report, we present the results of analyses of observer program data performed to compare several different estimators of catch and catch composition. Our analyses were applied to 1994 data collected in two fisheries selected based on data availability, representativeness, and economic importance: the walleye pollock and yellowfin sole fisheries in the USEEZ of the Eastern Bering Sea

Fisheries Assessment and Management Synthesis: Lessons for Chesapeake Bay

Describes the basic approaches that are used for stock assessment of the fish and shellfish stocks of the Chesapeake Bay system. The authors summarize the principal methods of stock assessment and fisheries management that have been and are being-applied to Bay fisheries, with particular emphasis on data collection and the use of models. Three case studies of critical species are presented - the striped bass, the blue crab and the Eastern oyster.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsbooks/1168/thumbnail.jp

Computational Decision Support for Socio-Technical Awareness of Land-Use Planning under Complexity—A Dam Resilience Planning Case Study

Land-use planning for modern societies requires technical competence as well as social competence. We therefore propose an integrative solution enabling better land-use planning and management through better-informed decision-making. We adapt a method developed for cross-disciplinary team building to identify the stakeholders and their various objectives and value systems. We use these results to populate artificial societies embedded into a dynamic data analytics framework as a tool to identify, explore, and visualize the challenges resulting from the different objectives and value systems in land-use planning and management. To prove the feasibility of the proposed solution, we present two use cases from the dam resilience planning domain, show how to apply the process and tools, and present the results. The solution is not limited to such use cases but can be generalized to address challenges in socio-technical systems, such as water resource evaluations or climate change effects

Migratory bird hunting activity and harvest during the 2005 and 2006 hunting seasons: Preliminary Estimates

Table of Contents Abstract ………………………………………………………………………… 1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………. 1 Design and Methods ……………………………………………………………. 1 Results and Discussion …………………………………………………………. 3 Waterfowl harvest estimates Species, state, flyway …………………………………………………… 8 Special seasons …………………………………………………………. 29 Canada harvest ...………………………………………………………. 32 Long-term trends graphs …………………………………………….…. 34 Waterfowl age and sex ratios …….………………………………………… 36 Long-term trends graphs …………………………………………….…. 49 Dove and pigeon estimates …………………………………………………. 53 Woodcock estimates ………………………………………………………… 55 Snipe, coot, gallinule, and rail estimates ……………………………………. 56 Species-specific rail estimates ………………………………………………. 6

Migratory bird hunting activity and harvest during the 1999 and 2000 hunting seasons Final Report April 2006

National surveys of waterfowl, dove, band-tailed pigeon (Columba fasciata), American woodcock (Scolopax minor), common snipe (Gallinago gallinago), rail, gallinule, and American coot (Fulica americana) hunters were conducted during the 1999 and 2000 migratory bird hunting seasons. About 1.3 million waterfowl hunters harvested 16,188,300 (±3%) ducks and 3,455,700 (±5%) geese in 1999, and a similar number of waterfowl hunters harvested 15,966,200 (±4%) ducks and 3,716,000 (±7%) geese in 2000. Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), gadwall (A. strepera), green-winged teal (A. crecca), wood duck (Aix sponsa), and blue-winged teal (A. discors) were the most-harvested duck species, and Canada goose (Branta canadensis) was the predominant goose species in the harvest. About 1.2 million dove hunters harvested 24,437,300 (±4%) mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) in 1999 and 26,295,300 (±4%) in 2000. Woodcock hunters numbered about 170,600 in 1999 and 154,500 in 2000, and they harvested 444,800 (±20%) birds in 1999 and 390,900 (±20%) in 2000. Among the lesser-hunted species, about 40,200 people hunted snipe in 1999 (29,200 in 2000), and they harvested 276,500 (±56%) and 86,400 (±52%) snipe in 1999 and 2000, respectively; rail hunters (11,900 in 1999 and 6,900 in 2000) harvested 31,600 (±41%) rails in 1999 and 15,300 (±56%) rails in 2000; about 4,000 hunters harvested 32,900 (±74%) gallinules in 1999 and 20,900 (±70%) in 2000; and about 40,000 coot hunters harvested 236,000 (±26%) coots in 1999 and 335,000 (±45%) in 2000

Migratory bird hunting activity and harvest during the 1999 and 2000 hunting seasons Final Report April 2006

National surveys of waterfowl, dove, band-tailed pigeon (Columba fasciata), American woodcock (Scolopax minor), common snipe (Gallinago gallinago), rail, gallinule, and American coot (Fulica americana) hunters were conducted during the 1999 and 2000 migratory bird hunting seasons. About 1.3 million waterfowl hunters harvested 16,188,300 (±3%) ducks and 3,455,700 (±5%) geese in 1999, and a similar number of waterfowl hunters harvested 15,966,200 (±4%) ducks and 3,716,000 (±7%) geese in 2000. Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), gadwall (A. strepera), green-winged teal (A. crecca), wood duck (Aix sponsa), and blue-winged teal (A. discors) were the most-harvested duck species, and Canada goose (Branta canadensis) was the predominant goose species in the harvest. About 1.2 million dove hunters harvested 24,437,300 (±4%) mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) in 1999 and 26,295,300 (±4%) in 2000. Woodcock hunters numbered about 170,600 in 1999 and 154,500 in 2000, and they harvested 444,800 (±20%) birds in 1999 and 390,900 (±20%) in 2000. Among the lesser-hunted species, about 40,200 people hunted snipe in 1999 (29,200 in 2000), and they harvested 276,500 (±56%) and 86,400 (±52%) snipe in 1999 and 2000, respectively; rail hunters (11,900 in 1999 and 6,900 in 2000) harvested 31,600 (±41%) rails in 1999 and 15,300 (±56%) rails in 2000; about 4,000 hunters harvested 32,900 (±74%) gallinules in 1999 and 20,900 (±70%) in 2000; and about 40,000 coot hunters harvested 236,000 (±26%) coots in 1999 and 335,000 (±45%) in 2000

Influence of Rock-Pool Characteristics on the Distribution and Abundance of Inter-Tidal Fishes

Rock pools can be found in inter-tidal marine environments worldwide; however, there have been few studies exploring what drives their, fish species composition, especially in Australia. The rock-pool environment is highly dynamic and offers a unique natural laboratory to study the habitat choices, physiological limitations and adaptations of inter-tidal fish species. In this study rock pools of the Sydney region were sampled to determine how the physical (volume, depth, rock cover and vertical position) and biological (algal cover and predator presence) parameters of pools influence fish distribution and abundance. A total of 27 fish species representing 14 families was observed in tide pools at the four study locations. The five most abundant species were Bathygobius cocosensis, Centropogon australis, Enneapterygius atrogulare, Lepidoblennius haplodactylus and Microcanthus strigatus, which together represented 71% of the total number of fish recorded. Larger rock pools containing more algal and rock ledge cover hosted a larger and more diverse population of fish. Furthermore, certain species were only found in pools with specific characteristics, such as the presence of loose shells, a variety algae or rock cover, suggesting a high degree of habitat specificity. By contrast, some species were ubiquitous and thus can likely tolerate a wide variety of physical conditions

A synthesis of ecosystem management strategies for forests in the face of chronic nitrogen deposition

Total nitrogen (N) deposition has declined in many parts of the U.S. and Europe since the 1990s. Even so, it appears that decreased N deposition alone may be insufficient to induce recovery from the impacts of decades of elevated deposition, suggesting that management interventions may be necessary to promote recovery. Here we review the effectiveness of four remediation approaches (prescribed burning, thinning, liming, carbon addition) on three indicators of recovery from N deposition (decreased soil N availability, increased soil alkalinity, increased plant diversity), focusing on literature from the U.S. We reviewed papers indexed in the Web of Science since 1996 using specific key words, extracted data on the responses to treatment along with ancillary data, and conducted a meta-analysis using a three-level variance model structure. We found 69 publications (and 2158 responses) that focused on one of these remediation treatments in the context of N deposition, but only 29 publications (and 408 responses) reported results appropriate for our meta-analysis. We found that carbon addition was the only treatment that decreased N availability (effect size: −1.80 to −1.84 across metrics), while liming, thinning, and prescribed burning all tended to increase N availability (effect sizes: +0.4 to +1.2). Only liming had a significant positive effect on soil alkalinity (+10.5%–82.2% across metrics). Only prescribed burning and thinning affected plant diversity, but with opposing and often statistically marginal effects across metrics (i.e., increased richness, decreased Shannon or Simpson diversity). Thus, it appears that no single treatment is effective in promoting recovery from N deposition, and combinations of treatments should be explored. These conclusions are based on the limited published data available, underscoring the need for more studies in forested areas and more consistent reporting suitable for meta-analyses across studies