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Bart M. Ballard

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Spatially-Explicit Decision Support Tool for Guiding Habitat Conservation for Western Gulf Coast Mottled Ducks
The mottled duck, a focal species for the Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative, is one of only a few duck species adapted to breeding in southern marshes. A major part of its population spends its entire life cycle within a relatively small coastal area in eastern Texas and western Louisiana. This is a thriving part of the Mississippi and Central Flyways, two of four major waterfowl migration routes in North America. In recent years, the mottled duck’s habitat and surrounding areas have been compromised by urbanization, agricultural development, and changes to the area’s hydrology affecting coastal wetlands. The latter threat includes the ramifications of climate change, such as sea level rise and...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, 2013, ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES, ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES, ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES, All tags...
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The Western Gulf Coast (WGC) provides valuable habitat for migratory and resident waterfowl. The mottled duck (Anas fulvigula), a resident species, is highly associated with coastal marsh habitats and relies on these areas for all of its life cycle needs. Habitat loss and degradation due to urban expansion and other human activities have raised concerns for the WGC mottled duck population. Although other threats such as sport harvest (Raftovich 2011), lead poisoning (Sanderson and Bellrose 1986), hybridization (McCracken et al. 2001), and predation (Stutzenbaker 1988, Moorman and Gray 1994, Durham and Afton 2003) may be additional factors in the overall decline of the population, the disappearance of suitable nesting...
The mottled duck is a resident dabbling duck that is distributed throughout the western Gulf Coast, primarily in Louisiana and Texas (WGC population), and also in a second population in peninsular Florida (Florida population). Within the WGC, several indices of abundance suggest that the mottled duck has declined over the last several decades, but the ability of many of these indices to detect changes in mottled duck abundance is unknown. Additionally, the surveys often provide different and sometimes conflicting results, causing confusion in interpreting WGC population trends. Also, differences in timing and coverage of surveys further complicate our understanding of the population trend. Overall, none of the surveys...
Categories: Data, Project; Tags: Project, onGoing
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Habitat loss and degradation due to urban expansion and other human activities have raised concerns for the Western Gulf Coast Mottled Duck population. This species relies on tidal, palustrine, and agricultural wetlands as well as grasslands for all of its life cycle needs. The disappearance of suitable nesting and brood-rearing habitat is believed to be the primary factor associated with long-term population decline of the mottled duck. One of the first science projects initiated by the GCP LCC was development of a spatially-explicit Decision Support Tool (DST) to help guide conservation and management of habitat for breeding Mottled Ducks in coastal Louisiana and Texas. An important next step is evaluating the...
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The Western Gulf Coast provides important habitat for migratory and resident waterfowl. The mottled duck(Anas fulvigula) relies on this region for all of its life-cycle events. Its relatively small population, limited worldwide range, and generally declining population trajectory has earned it a “Red” status on the Audubon WatchList and is a species of concern among state and federal agencies. The Western Gulf Coast (WGC) mottled duck population decline is believed to be primarily caused by the historical conversion and degradation of coastal wetlands and native prairie, and recent declines in cultivated rice. There is general agreement among experts that negative impacts to nesting and brood-rearing habitat are...
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