Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Predicting Avian Distributions To Evaluate Spatiotemporal Overlap With Locust Control Operations In Eastern Australia, Judit K. Szabo, Pamela J. Davy, Michael Hooper, Lee Astheimer

Dr Pamela Davy

Locusts and grasshoppers cause considerable economic damage to agriculture worldwide. The Australian Plague Locust Commission uses multiple pesticides to control locusts in eastern Australia. Avian exposure to agricultural pesticides is of conservation concern, especially in the case of rare and threatened species. The aim of this study was to evaluate the probability of pesticide exposure of native avian species during operational locust control based on knowledge of species occurrence in areas and times of application. Using presence-absence data provided by the Birds Australia Atlas for 1998 to 2002, we developed a series of generalized linear models to predict avian occurrences …