Work

Factors influencing shorebird use of post‐harvest flooded rice fields in California's Sacramento Valley

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Because of the importance of the Central Valley of California, USA, to shorebirds along the Pacific Flyway, conservation investments have been made in the area's agricultural fields and managed wetlands. Increasingly, landowner incentive programs are being used to deliver shorebird habitat, presenting opportunities to answer remaining questions about which implementation strategies and field management practices are most effective at attracting birds. To provide management guidance for these investments, we collected and analyzed 5 years of data (2014–2018) on shorebird abundance in flooded rice fields enrolled in a dynamic habitat incentive program. The program incentivized flooding in fallow and post‐harvest rice fields in seasons when habitat is relatively sparse, specifically the early fall and late spring. Across nearly 9,000 field observations over 5 years, we explored the relationship between abundance and density (birds/ha) of shorebirds and vegetation cover, soil clay, landscape‐level flooding, and local flood timing, duration, and depth. We observed more shorebirds in fields that were approximately 50% flooded, had water depths of 5–10 cm, and had minimal rice straw or stubble cover, with strong or very strong evidence for each of these relationships. We found that the timing of habitat provisioning was important, with moderate evidence that earlier fall flooding and strong evidence that the duration of fall flooding was associated with higher shorebird density. We observed lower shorebird densities in locations with ample flooded rice habitat in surrounding areas, potentially because shorebirds spread out across the landscape. We found very strong evidence that flooding consistency, either at a site that was continually flooded over many months or a site that had been flooded in previous years, was associated with higher shorebird density. Soil clay content was associated with decreased observed shorebird density, potentially through its influence on the ability of shorebirds to forage for invertebrate prey. These results suggest best practices for shorebird habitat creation in agricultural landscapes, providing important information for conservation and population recovery.

Source: Journal of Wildlife Management

DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.22661

Authors: Erin E. Conlisk, Gregory H. Golet, Mark Reynolds, Nathan Elliott, Matthew E. Reiter

Institutions: Point Blue Conservation Science, The Nature Conservancy

Language: English

Topic: Avian ecology and behavior

Subfield: Ecology

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Life on land, Zero hunger

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,270

Funders: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and Stephen Bechtel Fund

Award: FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS CONTRIBUTE DISPROPORTIONATELY TO GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES BUT ARE HIGHLY THREATENED BY CLIMATE CHANGE DROUGHT AND UNSUSTAINABLE WATER USE. IN ARID SEMI-ARID AND MEDITERRANEAN REGIONS LANDSCAPE-SCALE CONSERVATION REQUIRES PROTECTION MANAGEMENT AND ENHANCEMENT OF THE CONNECTIVITY OF DYNAMIC WETLAND HABITATS THROUGH SURFACE WATER WHICH IS HIGHLY DEPENDENT UPON CLIMATE VARIABILITY AND HUMAN-DRIVEN MANAGEMENT. WATER SUPPLY AND ITS EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT ARE CRITICAL TO WILDLIFE AND PEOPLE IN THESE ARID AND SEMI-ARID REGIONS MANY FOUND IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA. DECISION SUPPORT FOR CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS IS NEEDED TO BALANCE COMPETING NEEDS. MANAGERS MUST MOVE BEYOND PATCH-BASED MANAGEMENT TO A NETWORK FOCUS BY INCLUDING CONNECTIVITY AS A DYNAMIC LANDSCAPE PROPERTY. FURTHERMORE DUE TO THE INTENSE COMPETITION FOR WATER MANAGERS NEED TO MAKE WATER MANAGEMENT DECISIONS BASED ON THEIR ABILITY TO ACHIEVE MULTIPLE BENEFITS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES FOR HUMAN POPULATIONS. CALIFORNIA S CENTRAL VALLEY IS A SEMI-ARID REGION THAT IS A NEXUS FOR WATER RESOURCES. APPROXIMATELY 90% OF THE CENTRAL VALLEY S NATURALLY OCCURRING WETLANDS HAVE BEEN LOST AND FRAGMENTED DUE TO ANTHROPOGENIC ALTERATIONS OF THE LANDSCAPE YET THE CENTRAL VALLEY REMAINS A CRITICAL LANDSCAPE FOR MIGRATORY WATERBIRDS AND FRESHWATER DEPENDENT AQUATIC AND TERRESTRIAL SPECIES THROUGH A SYSTEM OF MANAGED WETLANDS AND POST-HARVEST FLOODED AGRICULTURE. BALANCING MULTIPLE NEEDS WITH WATER MANAGEMENT IN THE CENTRAL VALLEY AND MAINTAINING HABITAT CONNECTIVITY ACROSS MULTIPLE SCALES REQUIRES DATA FOR OPTIMIZATION THAT ONLY SATELLITE-BASED EARTH OBSERVATIONS CAN PROVIDE. SPATIALLY-EXPLICIT CONSERVATION PRIORITIZATION CAN USE THESE DATA TO IDENTIFY STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT LANDSCAPE-SCALE DECISIONMAKING TO MEET MULTIPLE OBJECTIVES IN THE FACE OF GREAT UNCERTAINTY AND MULTIPLE CONSTRAINTS. OUR PROPOSED PROJECT WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EARTH OBSERVATION TIME-SERIES AND BIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS TO HELP FORECAST AND PRIORITIZE WHERE TO PUT WATER AND WHEN TO OPTIMIZE MULTIPLE-BENEFITS ACROSS THE LARGE MOSAIC OF CALIFORNIA S CENTRAL VALLEY CROPLANDS AND WETLANDS; A SPATIAL EXTENT REQUIRED FOR THE WIDE-RANGING ECOLOGY OF MIGRATORY WATERBIRDS. WE WILL ASSESS HABITAT CONNECTIVITY AND ITS INFLUENCES ON MULTIPLE TAXA AS IT CHANGES OVER TIME WITHIN A YEAR AND UNDER FUTURE SCENARIOS. REMOTE-SENSING IS REQUIRED TO GUIDE DECISION-MAKING AND WILL SERVE AS A CATALYST FOR COORDINATED LARGE-SCALE WATER AND WETLAND CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT. TO FULLY SUPPORT OUR DECISION-MAKING COLLABORATORS WE WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE REGULAR RETURN INTERVAL OF SATELLITE DATA AND STATE-OF-THE-ART BIOINFORMATICS TO DEVELOP A WEB-BASED DECISION SUPPORT FRAMEWORK THAT CAN COMPILE AND EVALUATE THE DATA DEVELOPED FROM THIS PROJECT AND PROVIDE ONGOING UPDATES THROUGH TIME. THIS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP AND USE MULTI-ANNUAL FORECASTS AS WELL AS LONG-TERM PROJECTIONS (50 YEARS) OF THE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL AVAILABILITY OF WETLAND HABITATS WETLAND AND OPEN WATER DEPENDENT SPECIES CONNECTIVITY BIODIVERSITY AND GROUNDWATER RECHARGE TO PRIORITIZE AND STRATEGICALLY CREATE WETLAND HABITAT ON THE LANDSCAPE AS PART OF LARGE-SCALE COORDINATED CONSERVATION USING A DECISION-SUPPORT APPLICATION. INTEGRATING THE WATER AND WETLAND HABITAT FORECAST MODELS WITH SPECIES AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES DISTRIBUTIONS THROUGH A SPATIALLY-EXPLICIT CONSERVATION PRIORITIZATION FRAMEWORK WILL PROVIDE THE ESSENTIAL RESOURCES FOR IMPROVED COORDINATED LANDSCAPE-SCALE CONSERVATION DECISIONS THAT OPTIMIZE ACROSS MULTIPLE BENEFITS.

OpenAlex ID: W4402133294

FWCI: 0.268

Cites: 38

Cited by: 1

Related to: 10