Drought and Cooler Temperatures Are Associated with Higher Nest Survival in Mountain Plovers

Dreitz, Victoria J.; Conrey, Reesa Y.; Skagen, Susan K.

doi:10.5751/ace-00519-070106

Cited by 22 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Extreme weather events may include heavy rainstorms, such as the events in 2011 that caused many nest failures in our study, or prolonged drought, which could lead to greater accessibility of otherwise wet marshes to terrestrial predators; predation by ground predators is another important factor accounting for nest losses of Aquatic Warblers (Dyrcz and Zdunek 1993b). Increased climatic variability has affected nest survival in other ground-nesting birds (Albright et al 2010, Dreitz et al 2012). The Aquatic Warbler is well-adapted to annually fluctuating environmental conditions (Vergeichik and Kozulin 2006a, b), but increasing occurrence of extreme weather events combined with habitat loss or unfavourable conditions at wintering sites (Flade et al 2011) may contribute to population declines.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of mowing on productivity in the endangered Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola

Kubacka

Oppel

Dyrcz

et al. 2013

Bird Conservation International

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SummaryThe Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola is a globally threatened habitat specialist that breeds in open fens in Central and Eastern Europe. Because bush and reed encroachment threaten many suitable breeding areas, habitat management is necessary to maintain the open wetlands that Aquatic Warblers require for nesting. The effectiveness of mowing as habitat management has so far only been assessed by counting the number of singing males. To assess whether mowing also affected vital reproduction parameters, we analysed Aquatic Warbler productivity in the Biebrza National Park, Poland, on plots in four different successional stages after mowing. Our study showed that productivity was lowest in the first year after mowing, but increased to the highest levels in the second year after mowing. The productivity differences between areas at different stages after mowing resulted from differences in nest density, since we found little evidence for an effect of mowing on nest survival or the number of fledglings produced per successful nest. Nest survival was highly variable between years and varied mostly with nest age and nest initiation date. The density of singing males was positively correlated with both the nest density and the number of fledglings produced in an area, suggesting that this simple indicator could be used to rank the quality of Aquatic Warbler habitats. We recommend that in mesotrophic fen mires, such as the Biebrza valley, mowing as habitat management is applied less frequently than every second year.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of mowing on productivity in the endangered Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola

Kubacka

Oppel

Dyrcz

et al. 2013

Bird Conservation International

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“…Decreased survival rates associated with extreme weather events were similar across years and sites but are only illustrated for two cases, both in Weld County, Colorado: (a) Pawnee National Grassland, 1997, and(b) Central Plains Experimental Range, 2012. for effects of changing temperatures on nest survival of birds is equivocal. The inconsistency among studies is likely to be due to the variety of factors, including the temperature variables considered (daily or seasonal), the range of temperatures during the study, nest substrates (cavity or open cup) and microclimates (open arid lands or forest; vegetation surrounding the nest) involved across the various studies (Rotenberry & Wiens 1991, Dinsmore et al 2002, Drever & Clark 2007, Dickey et al 2008, Dreitz et al 2012, Skagen & Yackel Adams 2012. Although predation has been considered the primary direct cause of nest failure in songbirds in general (Martin 1995), storm events can also directly lead to nest mortality through exposure to hail damage and flooding (Skagen & Yackel Adams 2012, Fisher et al 2015.…”

Section: (A)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Extremes of heat, drought and precipitation depress reproductive performance in shortgrass prairie passerines

Conrey

Skagen

Adams

et al. 2016

Ibis

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Climate change elevates conservation concerns worldwide because it is likely to exacerbate many identified threats to animal populations. In recent decades, grassland birds have declined faster than other North American bird species, a loss thought to be due to habitat loss and fragmentation and changing agricultural practices. Climate change poses additional threats of unknown magnitude to these already declining populations. We examined how seasonal and daily weather conditions over 10 years influenced nest survival of five species of insectivorous passerines native to the shortgrass prairie and evaluate our findings relative to future climate predictions for this region. Daily nest survival (n = 870) was best predicted by a combination of daily and seasonal weather variables, age of nest, time in season and bird habitat guild. Within a season, survival rates were lower on very hot days (temperatures ≥ 35 °C), on dry days (with a lag of 1 day) and on stormy days (especially for those species nesting in shorter vegetation). Across years, survival rates were also lower during warmer and drier breeding seasons. Clutch sizes were larger when early spring temperatures were cool and the week prior to egg‐laying was wetter and warming. Climate change is likely to exacerbate grassland bird population declines because projected climate conditions include rising temperatures, more prolonged drought and more intense storms as the hydrological cycle is altered. Under varying realistic scenarios, nest success estimates were halved compared to their current average value when models both increased the temperature (3 °C) and decreased precipitation (two additional dry days during a nesting period), thus underscoring a sense of urgency in identifying and addressing the current causes of range‐wide declines.

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“…We first assessed relative importance of covariates within 5 categories representing our ecological hypotheses (i.e., prey abundance, vegetative cover, weather, anthropogenic infrastructure, nest substrate) by fitting univariate linear regressions of covariates on response variables with the base function glm in Program R. Additionally, we evaluated year and ecoregion at this stage. We compared models within each covariate category using AIC c , and retained covariates that ranked within 2 AIC c of the top model and above the intercept‐only model (Dreitz et al ). We calculated pairwise correlations among all covariates and retained the higher‐ranked variable from pairs that were strongly correlated.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Breeding success of birds is influenced by numerous factors, including composition and configuration of the surrounding landscape (Rodewald ), nest substrate and placement (Roth and Marzluff ), weather and climate (Dreitz et al ), food availability (Steenhof et al ), predation risk (Chalfoun et al ), natural (Rota et al ) and anthropogenic (Beale and Monaghan ) disturbance, and nesting stage (Stanley ). Studies intended to isolate management‐relevant variables can produce inconclusive or biased results if they fail to account for important competing sources of variation.…”

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confidence: 99%

Human‐made structures, vegetation, and weather influence ferruginous hawk breeding performance

et al. 2015

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Studies of anthropogenic impacts on wildlife may produce inconclusive or biased results if they fail to account for natural sources of variation in breeding performance and do not use probabilistic sampling at a scale functional for management. We used stratified random sampling and generalized linear mixed models to test hypotheses on relationships of daily nest survival rate (DSR) and fledgling production with anthropogenic and environmental factors that influence reproduction in the ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis). We conducted the study across ferruginous hawk range in Wyoming, USA, 2010-2012. We performed extensive field surveys of prey, vegetation, and nest substrates, and used spatially explicit data to quantify weather, and the most widespread forms of anthropogenic infrastructure (i.e., roads, oil and gas well pads) in ferruginous hawk territories. We found strong evidence that DSR and productivity were greater for nests on anthropogenic structures (i.e., artificial nest platforms, gas condensation tanks, abandoned windmill platforms, power poles) compared to natural substrates (i.e., trees, cliffs, rock outcrops). Additionally, ferruginous hawks produced more fledglings at territories with greater shrub cover and fewer severe storms during the June brood-rearing period. Amount of oil and gas development and prey was not associated with either measure of breeding performance. Our results suggest that artificial nest platforms are an effective tool to improve breeding success of ferruginous hawks and nesting on anthropogenic structures does not constitute an ecological trap for this species. Although ferruginous hawks nested in some areas with very little vegetative cover, territories with greater amounts of shrub cover produced more fledglings. The negative impact of severe spring storms on fledgling production illustrates the importance of including future weather scenarios in management planning for this species because storms are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

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Drought and Cooler Temperatures Are Associated with Higher Nest Survival in Mountain Plovers

Cited by 22 publications

References 26 publications

Effect of mowing on productivity in the endangered Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola

Effect of mowing on productivity in the endangered Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola

Extremes of heat, drought and precipitation depress reproductive performance in shortgrass prairie passerines

Human‐made structures, vegetation, and weather influence ferruginous hawk breeding performance

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