Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Avian Diversity, Abundance, And Nest Success Among Managed Prairies And Agricultural Plots In Oklahoma And Texas, Phillip J. Leonard, Douglas R. Wood, Wayne E. Meyer Dec 2017

Avian Diversity, Abundance, And Nest Success Among Managed Prairies And Agricultural Plots In Oklahoma And Texas, Phillip J. Leonard, Douglas R. Wood, Wayne E. Meyer

The Prairie Naturalist

Over the last 50 years, grassland birds experienced rapid declines due to habitat loss and degradation as a result of agricultural practices. Our objective was to document the diversity, abundance, and nest success of bird communities using managed prairie and agricultural plots at the Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in southern Oklahoma and Hagerman NWR in northern Texas. From April 1 to July 15, 2013–2014, point count surveys, nest searches, nest monitoring, and vegetation sampling were conducted among three habitat treatments: managed prairie, unharvested wheat, and fallow agricultural plots. Species richness values for potential nesting species were higher in managed …


Response Of Grassland Birds To Agricultural Intensity At Different Spatial Scales In Texas, Anna Matthews, M. Clay Green, James Giocomo Nov 2017

Response Of Grassland Birds To Agricultural Intensity At Different Spatial Scales In Texas, Anna Matthews, M. Clay Green, James Giocomo

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

The decline in grassland birds is often associated with habitat loss due to intensity of conversion to agricultural lands and the alterations of natural disturbances. We sought to identify agricultural effects at differing scales that correlate to Texas grassland bird abundance, especially northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). Ninety-five roadside routes were surveyed in 20 Texas counties ranging from the Oklahoma border to the coastal plains. We conducted point counts in May and June from 2013 to 2016. To estimate the coarse effects of agriculture on bird abundance at a county level, we used number of cattle and area of …


Utility Of Fine Resolution Land Cover Data For Modeling Northern Bobwhite Abundance In The Oaks And Prairies Of Oklahoma, Nicolas Jaffe, Timothy O'Connell, James Giocomo Nov 2017

Utility Of Fine Resolution Land Cover Data For Modeling Northern Bobwhite Abundance In The Oaks And Prairies Of Oklahoma, Nicolas Jaffe, Timothy O'Connell, James Giocomo

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

Management of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) requires landscape-level planning to promote sustainable populations. Limitations in time and resources necessitate the use of large geographic datasets to efficiently evaluate habitat suitability across landscapes. Many such datasets, however, are limited by a lack of detailed and current information relevant to regional management efforts. To meet this need, regional partners recently released the Oklahoma Ecological Systems Mapping (OESM) product, which offers high spatial and thematic resolution vegetation data, current to 2015. We evaluated the utility of the new OESM product for modelling abundance of northern bobwhite and other grassland birds, relating …


Data-Driven Planning For The Conservation Of Grassland Birds In The Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region, Cara J. Joos, Jane A. Fitzgerald, Christopher M. Lituma, James Giocomo, Larry Heggemann Nov 2017

Data-Driven Planning For The Conservation Of Grassland Birds In The Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region, Cara J. Joos, Jane A. Fitzgerald, Christopher M. Lituma, James Giocomo, Larry Heggemann

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

The Central Hardwoods Joint Venture held two workshops in 2006 to delineate bobwhite focus areas across the Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region (BCR) for targeting on-the-ground conservation efforts. From 2008 – 2012, we conducted randomized sets of point counts within counties containing bobwhite focal areas to assess the efficacy of that method for monitoring grassland birds within focal areas, and to assess relationships of conservation practices with bird species occupancy and abundance. We collected data on nine species of Partners in Flight priority species, including northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). Land cover types within a 200-m buffer of each …


Uncertainty And The Entanglement Of Habitat Loss And Fragmentation Effects In The Management Of Northern Bobwhite, Mason H. Cline, Richard B. Chandler, Clinton T. Moore, James A. Martin Nov 2017

Uncertainty And The Entanglement Of Habitat Loss And Fragmentation Effects In The Management Of Northern Bobwhite, Mason H. Cline, Richard B. Chandler, Clinton T. Moore, James A. Martin

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

There is a need to understand the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and other grassland bird species and relate this to conservation action and delivery, especially in areas of intensive anthropogenic development. Through our research, we investigated the factors contributing to habitat loss and fragmentation in order to prioritize management within the Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GCP LCC) region of Texas, USA. For this geographic region, we completed these objectives: analyzed grassland bird habitat loss and fragmentation resulting from oil and gas development, which has become especially rapid in this …


Strategic Habitat Conservation For Declining Grassland Wildlife Populations In The Oaks And Prairies Joint Venture, James Giocomo, Johnathan Hayes, Kenneth Gee, Jeff Raasch, Robert Perez Nov 2017

Strategic Habitat Conservation For Declining Grassland Wildlife Populations In The Oaks And Prairies Joint Venture, James Giocomo, Johnathan Hayes, Kenneth Gee, Jeff Raasch, Robert Perez

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

Degradation and conversion of functioning grassland ecosystems in North America has driven significant declines in grassland wildlife populations across multiple taxa. In an effort to address declines in the grasslands of Oklahoma and Texas, a number of governmental agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations have partnered to form the Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture (OPJV) to more strategically and collaboratively deliver conservation actions in this region. With northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) as the flagship species, OPJV has worked to implement a fully integrated Strategic Habitat Conservation framework that works at multiple scales to conduct biological planning, landscape conservation design, habitat …


Improving Survey Methodology To Monitor Rare Grassland Birds In South Dakota, Kassondra Hendricks Jan 2017

Improving Survey Methodology To Monitor Rare Grassland Birds In South Dakota, Kassondra Hendricks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data for grassland bird species has shown the most rapid population decline of any other bird group. Current roadside survey techniques, however, may fall short of providing accurate numbers of rare grassland bird species such as chestnut-collared longspur (Calcarius ornatus), lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys), Sprague’s pipit (Anthus spragueii), and Baird’s sparrow (Ammodramus bairdii). Trends resulting from roadside data for grassland birds are oftentimes determined to be statistically insignificant because many grassland bird species occur on too few routes, occur in low numbers per route, and show high annual fluctuations in number. It is possible roadside surveys …