Abstracts

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C.4-3: Evaluating Landscape Changes and Breeding Waterfowl in California's Central Valley, 1998-2016

Presented by Cliff Feldheim - Email: Cliff.Feldheim@water.ca.gov

Habitat loss poses the greatest threat to species across the world and is the most significant contributor to reductions in biodiversity and animal populations. Wetlands, among the most biodiverse and economically valuable ecosystems, have suffered s...
Session: Populations & Productivity (Tuesday, August 27, 15:30 to 16:50)

C.4-4: Implications of Covariation in Demographic Rates for Lesser Scaup

Presented by Kelsey Navarre - Email: kelsey.navarre@colostate.edu

The continental population of scaup remains well below population objectives. Previous analyses of long-term demographic data have revealed recruitment as the likely driver of population decline. Recruitment is comprised of several potentially import...
Session: Populations & Productivity (Tuesday, August 27, 15:30 to 16:50)

D.1-1: Ecosystem Services and the Curious Case of Canadian Wetland Economics

Presented by John K. Pattison-Williams - Email: jk.pattisonwilliams@gmail.com

The degradation and loss of North American wetlands over the last century has had an impact on biodiversity— including waterfowl—across the continent. In Canada, such loss of wetlands has been a concern for provincial governments across the political...
Session: Ecosystem Services (Wednesday, August 28, 8:15 to 10:00)

D.1-2: Beyond waterfowl habitat: Valuing multiple ecosystem services in managed wetlands to inform conservation

Presented by Tom O'Halloran - Email: tohallo@clemson.edu

In North America, there is a long history of managing wetlands for waterfowl habitat. The economic values of waterfowl hunting, wildlife viewing, fishing, and crustacean harvest have heretofore sustained conservation and management of these systems. ...
Session: Ecosystem Services (Wednesday, August 28, 8:15 to 10:00)

D.2-1: Emerging trends and programs for natural Infrastructure finance

Presented by Dimple Roy - Email: droy@iisd.ca

The International institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) has been a strong proponent for well-managed ecosystems based on the multitude of valuable benefits that they provide. In a report in 2019, IISD used it’s sustainable asset valuation tool...
Session: Ecosystem Services (Wednesday, August 28, 10:30 to 12:00)

D.2-2: Why losing waterfowl habitat is a concern for all

Presented by Pascal Badiou - Email: p_badiou@ducks.ca

Ducks Unlimited Canada and other conservation agencies have long espoused the values of wetlands for the numerous ecosystem services they provide society. However, for the most part, these values were historically extracted from global analyses, cove...
Session: Ecosystem Services (Wednesday, August 28, 10:30 to 12:00)

D.2-3: Advancing Waterfowl Conservation Through Ecosystem Services

Presented by J. Dale James - Email: djames@ducks.org

The mission of Ducks Unlimited Inc. (DUI) is to conserve, restore and manage wetlands and associated habitats for North America’s waterfowl, while also realizing these habitats benefit other wildlife and society. To date DUI has conserved, restored ...
Session: Ecosystem Services (Wednesday, August 28, 10:30 to 12:00)

D.2-4: Implementing a Standardized Wetland Monitoring Protocol to Assess the Nutrient Retention Capacity of Newly Restored Wetlands in Southwestern Ontario

Presented by Bryan Page - Email: b_page@ducks.ca

To address the eutrophication of Lake Erie, The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 2012 requested the Lake Erie basin governments to develop a Domestic Action Plan to guide the achievement of phosphorus reduction targets. In February 2018, the Ca...
Session: Ecosystem Services (Wednesday, August 28, 10:30 to 12:00)

E.1-1: Relative Importance of Vital Rates to Population Dynamics of Wood Ducks

Presented by Gary R Hepp - Email: heppgar@auburn.edu

We know very little about how changes in vital rates influence population growth rate () of wood ducks (Aix sponsa). We used estimates of fertility and survival of female wood ducks from our long-term nest-box studies in South Carolina, Alabama, and ...
Session: Wood Duck Ecology & Conservation (Wednesday, August 28,13:20 to 15:00)

E.1-2: PIT-tagging and RFID Tracking Provide New (and Surprising) Insights on Nest Site Use, Fidelity, Female Survival and Recruitment of Wood Ducks in California

Presented by John M. Eadie - Email: jmeadie@ucdavis.edu

Traditional methods to estimate survival, fidelity, and reproductive success of wood ducks typically involve analyses of banded females caught on the nest during incubation. Such analyses provide a strong foundation for management. However, might suc...
Session: Wood Duck Ecology & Conservation (Wednesday, August 28, 13:20 to 15:00)

E.1-3: Wood Duck Tree Cavity Selection and Use at Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge

Presented by J. Boomer Malanchuk - Email: bmalanchuk@ksu.edu

Previous research suggests > 90% of wood duck production occurs in naturally forming tree cavities but there has never been a cavity-nesting study in the Atlantic Flyway. Most wood duck nest-site selection and use has been studied in man-made nest bo...
Session: Wood Duck Ecology & Conservation (Wednesday, August 28,13:20 to 15:00)

E.1-4: Trapping rates, survival, and habitat selection for wood ducks in central Wisconsin

Presented by Kali Rush - Email: krush@ducks.org

Although breeding ecology of wood ducks is well-studied, most research has involved captured birds from artificial nest boxes, where females and their offspring might be protected from predation. While this capture method is relatively easy and effic...
Session: Wood Duck Ecology & Conservation (Wednesday, August 28,13:20 to 15:00)

E.1-5: Emerging trends and spatio-temporal differences in vital rates for wood ducks

Presented by Jake Straub - Email: straub.47@gmail.com

The Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) is an important waterfowl species in North America. It ranks as the fourth most harvested duck species in North America and, as a species, nests almost exclusively below the 49th parallel in North America. Not surprisingl...
Session: Wood Duck Ecology & Conservation (Wednesday, August 28,13:20 to 15:00)

E.2-1: Effects of commercial forest harvesting on the distribution of breeding black ducks in New Brunswick, Canada

Presented by Kelly McLean - Email: kmclean6@unb.ca

Breeding American back duck populations (black duck; Anas rubripes) have declined range-wide since the institution of systematic surveys in the 1990s; however, what may be driving this decline is at present unknown. Black ducks can be intolerant to d...
Session: Industry Interactions (Wednesday, August 28, 13:20 to 15:00)

E.2-2: Forest harvesting emulates fire for some but not all boreal-breeding ducks

Presented by Vanessa Harriman - Email: v_harriman@ducks.ca

Efforts to emulate natural disturbance in forest management rely on the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on wildlife populations approximating those of natural perturbations to which they are presumably adapted via natural selection. Whether this...
Session: Industry Interactions (Wednesday, August 28, 13:20 to 15:00)

E.2-3: Duck Populations and the Petroleum Industry in Alberta

Presented by Susan Witherly - Email: s_witherly@ducks.ca

The boreal forest of northern Alberta supports a large portion of North Americas breeding duck population and is an area of importance to the petroleum industry. Breeding duck surveys in the Boreal Plains ecozone show several ground nesting species a...
Session: Industry Interactions (Wednesday, August 28, 13:20 to 15:00)

E.2-4: Roads, Pipelines, and Seismic LinesWhat Do They Mean for Boreal Ducks?

Presented by Stuart Slattery - Email: s_slattery@ducks.ca

The Western Boreal Forest (WBF) has changed rapidly due to industrial development. Implications of these changes for waterfowl are unknown though landscape changes are hypothesized to alter food availability and/or predation rates with subsequent neg...
Session: Industry Interactions (Wednesday, August 28, 13:20 to 15:00)

E.2-5: Impacts of oil and gas development on duck pair abundance

Presented by Chuck Loesch - Email: chuck_loesch@fws.gov

The expansion and intensification of oil and gas development in the Bakken shale oil formation that began in 2004 raised several uncertainties for managers tasked with prioritizing wetland and grassland habitat for conservation in the region. Of spec...
Session: Industry Interactions (Wednesday, August 28, 13:20 to 15:00)

E.3-1: Predicting spatiotemporal abundance of breeding waterfowl across Canada: opening the black box

Presented by Antoine Adde - Email: antoine.adde.1@ulaval.ca

The Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey (WBPHS) produces annual counts of breeding waterfowl to species over 30km segments. The survey area now covers much of Canada, excluding the Arctic. Nicole Barkers (2014) study remains the only use...
Session: Habitat Use & Modeling (Wednesday, August 28, 13:20 to 15:00)

E.3-2: Local and landscape characteristics that influence waterbird wetland use during spring migration in Illinois

Presented by Abigail G. Blake-Bradshaw - Email: ablakebradshaw@gmail.com

Habitat conditions during migration likely influences body condition and subsequent recruitment of some waterbird species and during the breeding period. However, relatively little is known about relationships between habitat characteristics and wat...
Session: Habitat Use & Modeling (Wednesday, August 28, 13:20 to 15:00)

E.3-3: Building a Predictive Model of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation for Atlantic Brant

Presented by Chase Colmorgen - Email: chaseco@udel.edu

With a constantly changing environment, the ability to retain and protect submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV: eelgrass (Zostera marina), widgeongrass (Ruppia maritima), and macroalgae (Ulva sp., Entermorpha sp, Gracilaria tikvahiae, and assorted Rhodo...
Session: Habitat Use & Modeling (Wednesday, August 28, 13:20 to 15:00)