Abstract. Wind energy development is targeted to meet 20% of U.S. energy demand by 2030. In Kansas, optimal sites for wind energy development often overlap with preferred habitats of Greater PrairieChickens (Tympanuchus cupido), a lek-mating species of prairie grouse with declining populations. Our goal was to use movement data from radio telemetry to investigate patterns and drivers of seasonal space use by female prairie-chickens during pre-and post-construction periods at a wind energy facility in northcentral Kansas. We developed individual and population level resource utilization functions (RUFs) for four time periods: the 6-month breeding and nonbreeding seasons during the pre-construction stage (2007)(2008); n ¼ 28 and 14 females), and the same two seasons during a post-construction period (2009)(2010)(2011); n ¼ 102 and 37). RUFs relate non-uniform space use within a home range to landscape metrics in a multiple regression framework. We selected ten predictor variables that described land cover, habitat patchiness, anthropogenic disturbance, and social behavior of prairie-chickens. We documented two behavioral responses of females to wind energy development during the breeding season: (1) mean home range size increased approximately two-fold, and (2) space use had a positive relationship with distance to turbine, which indicated female avoidance of wind turbines. A parallel study of demographic rates in our study population found no negative effects of wind energy development on prairie-chicken fecundity or survival, but persistent avoidance of wind energy development could result in the local extirpation of prairie-chicken populations at our study site. Our primary ecological finding was that distance to lek was the strongest predictor of space use during all treatment periods, with relatively high use of areas at short distances from leks in 79% of female home ranges. Thus, lek site surveys should be effective for identifying prairie grouse habitat preferences and monitoring population dynamics when more intensive demographic studies are not feasible. Our study is the first application of resource utilization function techniques to a wildlife population in response to energy development, and our results provide new quantitative insights into the spatial ecology of an upland gamebird of conservation concern.

Summary1. The potential effects of wind energy development on wildlife have received increased attention over the past decade. In Kansas, optimal sites for wind energy development often overlap with preferred habitats of greater prairie-chickens Tympanuchus cupido. Our goal was to determine whether wind energy development affected survival of female prairie-chickens in a grassland ecosystem, assessing one potential impact of wind on an upland gamebird of conservation concern. We focused primarily on the response of female prairie-chickens to wind energy development because population dynamics of prairie-chickens are primarily determined by female demography. 2. We monitored prairie-chickens at a wind facility in Kansas during a 2-year pre-construction (2007)(2008) and a 3-year post-construction period (2009)(2010)(2011). We used data from 220 radio-marked females to calculate weekly survival and hazard rates. We used cause of death for 81 mortality events to test for changes in the proportion of mortalities attributed to mammalian predators, avian predators and collisions. 3. We observed an unexpected increase in annual survival during the post-construction period (0Á57) compared with the pre-construction period (0Á32). Distance from home range centroid to the nearest wind turbine site had no effect on weekly survival of females. Collision mortality events were rare, and most were associated with fences or transmission lines and not turbine blades. 4. Most female mortality was due to predation (c. 90%). Differences in annual survival were driven by a higher risk of mortality during lekking activity in March and April during the preconstruction period (weekly hazard rate = 0Á050-0Á062) compared with the post-construction period (hazard rate = 0Á012-0Á021). We observed no change in the proportion of mortalities attributed to different causes between the two treatment periods. 5. Synthesis and applications. Development of a wind energy facility had no negative effect on survival of female prairie-chickens. The results of our field study indicate that greater prairie-chickens are less sensitive to wind energy development than lesser prairie-chickens Tympanuchus pallidicinctus and greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus are to oil and gas development. We have strong evidence that survival increased after wind energy development, and hypothesize that energy development affected the local predator community, resulting in an indirect effect of decreased predation risk during the post-construction period.

The Southern Great Plains has been altered by conversion of native grassland to row‐crop agriculture, which is considered the primary cause of declining lesser prairie‐chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) populations. However, recent analyses indicate that direct loss of grassland has slowed while lesser prairie‐chicken populations continue to decline, suggesting that remaining grasslands potentially suffer from degradation by various land uses (e.g., increased anthropogenic disturbance). Understanding the spatial ecology of lesser prairie‐chickens relative to anthropogenic structures is important for conservation planning, habitat management, and infrastructure mitigation. We investigated effects of proximity to anthropogenic structures on home range and nest placement (second‐order selection) and within home range space use (third‐order selection) of radio‐marked lesser prairie‐chickens (n = 285) at 2 scales of selection using resource utilization functions and resource selection functions. We collected data from birds marked in the Mixed‐Grass Prairie and Short‐Grass Prairie ecoregions of Kansas, USA, from 15 March 2013 to 14 March 2016. Home range placement did not vary by region or season, and lesser prairie‐chickens placed home ranges farther from powerlines and roads than would be expected at random. As distance increased from 0 to 3 km away from roads and powerlines, the relative probability of home range placement increased 1.66 and 1.54 times, respectively. Distance to powerline was the single most consistent variable negatively affecting nest placement. As the distance from powerline increased from 0 to 3 km, the relative probability of nest placement increased 2.19 times. Distance to oil well did not influence placement of home ranges or nests. When pooled across regions, lesser prairie‐chickens exhibited behavioral avoidance of powerlines, roads, and oil wells within their home range. Lesser prairie‐chickens, on average, used space at greater intensities within their home range farther from wells, powerlines, and roads than available. Across breeding season phases, we found no evidence of increased behavioral avoidance of anthropogenic structures during the nesting or brooding phases compared to the lekking or post‐breeding phases. Within home range space use during the brooding phase was not related to powerlines, wells, or roads. Our results indicate that avoidance of anthropogenic structures may result in functional habitat loss and continued fragmentation of remaining grassland habitat. Reduction or elimination of anthropogenic development in quality lesser prairie‐chicken habitat and concentrating new development in already altered areas that are avoided by lesser prairie‐chickens and no longer considered available habitat may reduce continued habitat degradation throughout the species’ range and aid in population persistence. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.

Theory suggests that different taxa having colonized a similar, challenging environment will show parallel or lineage‐specific adaptations to shared selection pressures, but empirical examples of parallel evolution in independent taxa are exceedingly rare. We employed comparative genomics to identify parallel and lineage‐specific responses to selection within and among four species of North American sparrows that represent four independent, post‐Pleistocene colonization events by an ancestral, upland subspecies and a derived salt marsh specialist. We identified multiple cases of parallel adaptation in these independent comparisons following salt marsh colonization, including selection of 12 candidate genes linked to osmoregulation. In addition to detecting shared genetic targets of selection across multiple comparisons, we found many novel, species‐specific signatures of selection, including evidence of selection of loci associated with both physiological and behavioral mechanisms of osmoregulation. Demographic reconstructions of all four species highlighted their recent divergence and small effective population sizes, as expected given their rapid radiation into saline environments. Our results highlight the interplay of both shared and lineage‐specific selection pressures in the colonization of a biotically and abiotically challenging habitat and confirm theoretical expectations that steep environmental clines can drive repeated and rapid evolutionary diversification in birds.