Abstracts

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

by Chase Colmorgen, Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, et al

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...

E.3-4: Habitat Use by Female Mallards During and After Waterfowl Hunting Season in Mississippi

by Joseph D. Lancaster, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, Box 9690, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA, et al

Presented by Joseph D. Lancaster - Email: lancastj@illinois.edu

Recreational hunting harvest is a predatory force demonstrated to impart fear in surviving individuals. Survivors of near-predatory events may alter behavior and space use to avoid risky environments and events that could pose fitness costs via reduc...

E.3-5: Black Scoter Habitat Use along the Southeastern Coast of the United States

by Hannah M. Plumpton, Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA, et al

Presented by Hannah M Plumpton - Email: hplumpt@clemson.edu

While the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada is a major wintering area for sea ducks, habitat use and movement patterns of sea ducks, such as the black scoter (Melanitta americana), are relatively unknown and understudied. The lack of inf...

E.4-1: Estimating offsets for waterfowl displacement effects of anthropogenic impacts

by Charles R. Loesch, Habitat and Population Evaluation Team, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 3425 Miriam Avenue, Bismarck, ND, 58501, USA, et al

Presented by Charles R. Loesch - Email: chuck_loesch@fws.gov

Biodiversity offsetting, or compensatory mitigation, is increasingly being used in temperate grassland ecosystems to compensate for unavoidable environmental damage from anthropogenic developments such as transportation infrastructure, urbanization, ...

E.4-2: Does wetland management for waterfowl increase marsh bird occupancy?

by Auriel M.V. Fournier, Illinois Natural History Survey, Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center and Forbes Biological Station, Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois, Havana, IL, 62644, USA., et al

Presented by Auriel M.V. Fournier - Email: auriel@illinois.edu

It is widely assumed that wetland management practices for waterfowl benefit a variety of wetland-dependent birds, but few studies have evaluated this assumption. Secretive marsh birds are a migratory guild of conservation concern and that use shallo...

E.4-3: Evaluation of Integrated Waterbird Management and Monitoring Program Survey Techniques to Assess Waterbird Abundance

by Luke J. Malanchuk , Illinois Natural History Survey, Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center and Forbes Biological Station, Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois, Havana, IL. , et al

Presented by Luke J. Malanchuk - Email: luchuk18@illinois.edu

A variety of survey designs and protocols are used to monitor waterfowl and other wetland-dependent bird (collectively, waterbird) abundance during migration and winter (hereafter, non-breeding period). Biologists from state and federal agencies, non...

E.4-4: Antagonistic, Synergistic and Direct Effects of Land Use and Climate on Aquatic and Avian Communities: Ghosts of the Past or Present?

by Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, et al

Presented by Robert Clark - Email: bob.clark@canada.ca

Wetlands are being lost or degraded, threatening biodiversity to an extent greater than in most ecosystems. To develop science-supported responses, we require an understanding of interacting effects of land-use and climate change on wetland biodivers...

E.4-5: Using Environmental DNA to Characterize Waterbird Communities in Central Arizona

by Catherine E. Benson, Department of Biology and Chemistry, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, AZ, et al

Presented by Catherine E. Benson - Email: bensonc5@erau.edu

All organisms, from bacteria to humans, leave a genetic fingerprint in their environment, and recent advances in environmental DNA (eDNA) analyses are allowing scientists to detect these signals in samples of air, water, and soil. One such analysis, ...

F.1-1: Why we need more women in STEM leadership roles: innovations to overcome obstacles and identify solutions

by Kaylan Kemink, Ducks Unlimited Inc., Great Plains Regional Office, Bismarck, ND 58503, USA, et al

Presented by Lisa Webb - Email: webbli@missouri.edu

Data suggest that involving women in leadership roles from Fortune-500 companies to small conservation groups result in greater innovation, increased productivity, and higher project success rates. Over the past three decades there have been directe...

F.1-2: Beginning a career in waterfowl ecology: Challenges and strategies

by Casey M. Setash, Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, et al

Presented by Casey Marie Setash - Email: csetash@rams.colostate.edu

The number of women in the ecology field has drastically increased over the last several decades. There is currently a large cohort of young women studying some aspect of gamebird, and specifically waterfowl, ecology at the undergraduate or graduate ...

F.1-3: Underemployment: A self-imposed opportunity gap

by Lindsay G. Carlson, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Portland, ME, et al

Presented by Lindsay G. Carlson - Email: lcarlson@gmri.org

An often-cited statistic states that men will apply for positions where they meet 60% of the qualifications, but women will only apply if they meet 100% of the qualifications. Women may be missing out on career advancement opportunities by failing to...

F.1-4: Mentoring in the Waterfowl Profession: Challenges and Opportunities

by Susan N Ellis-Felege, Biology Department, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, et al

Presented by Susan Ellis-Felege - Email: susan.felege@email.und.edu

Mentoring plays a crucial role in both the educational and professional world of Science, Technology, Engineer, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, as it provides students and young employees with sponsorship and networking opportunities. Despite the...

F.1-5: Effective networking strategies for hunters and non-hunters

by Beth E Ross, U.S. Geological Survey, South Carolina Cooperative Research Unit, Clemson, SC, et al

Presented by Beth E Ross - Email: bross5@clemson.edu

Waterfowl ecology has grown from a long tradition of hunting. While historically, many waterfowl ecologists would have entered the field with this background, our field is becoming increasingly diverse. Many early career professionals may have had li...

F.2-1: Regional Examination of the Contribution of Nest Boxes to Wood Duck Recruitment in the Southeast United States: Pilot Study

by Beau Bauer, Nemours Wildlife Foundation, Yemassee, South Carolina, et al

Presented by Beau Bauer - Email: bbauer@nemourswildlife.org

Artificial nest boxes have played a pivotal role in recovery and management of wood ducks (Aix sponsa) in North America for over a century. Wood ducks now comprise a significant percentage of the annual waterfowl harvest in the Atlantic and Mississip...

F.2-2: Nest-box selection by wood ducks and black-bellied whistling ducks across coastal South Carolina

by Gillie D. Croft, Nemours Wildlife Foundation, Yemassee, SC , et al

Presented by Gillie D. Croft - Email: gcroft@clemson.edu

We conducted surveys of nest-structure use and selection by wood ducks (Aix sponsa) and black-bellied whistling ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis) across two coastal South Carolina regions during 20162017. For 364 and 354 nest boxes surveyed each year, 6...

F.2-3: Survival and resource selection of overwintering ring-necked ducks in the southern Atlantic Flyway.

by Tori Mezebish, University of Georgia, et al

Presented by Tori Mezebish - Email: tmezebish@gmail.com

Overwintering is an important life history stage during which waterfowl in the southeastern United States build and maintain energy reserves for subsequent migration and breeding but are simultaneously subject to hunting. Ring-necked ducks (Aythya co...

F.2-4: Southward departure of urban-wintering Canada geese from major metropolitan areas

by Ryan Askren, Illinois Natural History Survey, Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center and Forbes Biological Station, Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois, Havana, IL 62644., et al

Presented by Ryan Askren - Email: raskren2@illinois.edu

Temperate-breeding Canada goose (Branta canadensis) abundances have increased while wintering distributions of both subarctic- and temperate-breeding Canada geese have shifted northward. Abundances of geese remaining north of traditional wintering ar...

F.3-1: Waste Grain Availability in Post-harvest Rice and Corn Fields, California

by Luke Matthews, California Rice Commission, Sacramento, California , et al

Presented by Luke Matthews - Email: lmatthews@calrice.org

Rice and corn comprise 70% of the winter food supplies for waterfowl in the Central Valley. However, agricultural practices such as post-harvest treatments of rice and corn fields have been changing in the Central Valley. These changes are largely du...

F.3-2: Rice and Natural Seed Biomass Estimates for Avian Habitat Conservation in Gulf Coast Prairie Croplands

by Joseph R. Marty, Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge, Coastal and Nongame Resource Division, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Grand Chenier, LA, et al

Presented by Joseph R. Marty - Email: jmarty@wlf.la.gov

Forage biomass estimates at regional and other large spatial scales are fundamental to estimating habitat carrying capacity for migrating and wintering waterfowl. Hundreds of wetland bird species use rice fields in the Gulf Coast Prairie region of Lo...

F.3-3: Waterfowl forage characterization and carrying capacity estimates for stock ponds of the MT7 Ranch, Stevens County, Texas

by James R. Morel, Department of Natural Resources Management, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA, et al

Presented by James R. Morel - Email: james.morel@ttu.edu

The Oaks and Prairies Ecoregion of east-central Texas harbor numerous man-made stock ponds, which regionally are the dominant landscape water feature and collectively provide abundant habitat for wintering waterfowl. Recent Texas Parks and Wildlife ...

F.3-4: Linking LTRM Vegetation Data with Bioenergetics Needs of Waterfowl to Inform Wildlife Habitat Management

by Kirsten I Schmidt, Graduate Student, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI, et al

Presented by Kirsten I Schmidt - Email: kschm107@uwsp.edu

The Upper Mississippi River is a large and diverse ecosystem known for its rich diversity of flora and fauna. Many areas of the Upper Mississippi River harbor vast areas ideally suited for the growth of aquatic vegetation, especially wild celery (Val...