{"id":576,"date":"2016-01-13T21:30:57","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T21:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/?page_id=576"},"modified":"2018-09-11T20:36:05","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T20:36:05","slug":"emily-blythe","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/emily-blythe\/","title":{"rendered":"Emily Blythe, MSC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Predation Effects on Waterfowl Production<a href=\"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/51\/2016\/01\/Pic-for-Lab-Website.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-573\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-573 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/51\/2016\/01\/Pic-for-Lab-Website-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Pic for Lab Website\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/51\/2016\/01\/Pic-for-Lab-Website-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/51\/2016\/01\/Pic-for-Lab-Website.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Within the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR), parkland habitats have been identified as crucial breeding areas\u00a0for migratory waterfowl. Nesting success plays a primary role in duck population dynamics and has\u00a0decreased across the PPR over the last several decades, often below the 15-20% threshold necessary to\u00a0maintain populations. The decrease is largely attributed to increased predation resulting from habitat\u00a0alteration, specifically loss of native prairie to agricultural, industrial and residential land practices.\u00a0Predator management has been utilized by waterfowl managers for several decades, beginning with\u00a0poisoning and later turning to more targeted methods like trapping. Well-informed habitat management\u00a0remains essential to maintaining healthy duck populations, but in some circumstances nest success is\u00a0severely limited by predation rates that cannot be mitigated by habitat management alone.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo Lake and Viking are centers of duck production hotspots within the Alberta parklands and are\u00a0the focus of our research on upland duck nesting success and use of predation reduction strategies,\u00a0done in partnership with the Delta Waterfowl Foundation. In 2015, 200 cylindrical, artificial nesting\u00a0structures called hen houses were installed over water in the Buffalo Lake region, and each will be\u00a0monitored for use and nest fate through 2015-2017 nesting seasons. On plots in both study areas,\u00a0professional trappers will target mesopredators including coyotes, foxes, skunks, and raccoons, while\u00a0corvids will be removed opportunistically. Breeding pair surveys, upland nest searching, nest monitoring\u00a0and brood surveys will be conducted, with the goals of estimating nesting success for both regions and\u00a0evaluating the efficacy of each management tool. Habitat associations with successful versus\u00a0depredated nests might help to identify those habitats where nest predators would have least\u00a0consequence, and will be examined for potential management implications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Predation Effects on Waterfowl Production Within the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR), parkland habitats have been identified as crucial breeding areas\u00a0for migratory waterfowl. Nesting success plays a primary role in duck population dynamics and has\u00a0decreased across the PPR over the last&hellip; <br \/><a class=\"read-more-button\" href=\"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/emily-blythe\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-576","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/576\/revisions\/862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/boyce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}