To return to the Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference website, go to http://www.midwestfw.org/ The following schedule and room names are subject to change (as of February 1, 2017). Please check back for updates.
Presenters: Presenters for technical presentations are either the primary author (the first name listed in the abstract), or are indicated with an asterisk next to their name. Please note: the conference schedule is hosted by Sched.org which allows you to search within the schedule, and filter the schedule to show sessions only occurring on a certain date or within a track. You can also build your own schedule by creating a free account with Sched.org by selecting "SIGN UP" in the top right corner.
AUTHORS: David Swanson, Missouri River Institute - University of South Dakota
ABSTRACT: Woodland habitats in the Northern Prairie region are scarce, but support the highest bird numbers of any habitat in the region. Historically, such habitats consisted primarily of riparian corridor woodlands, such as those along the MNRR. These habitats have been greatly reduced and degraded over the past 150 years, during which time human-planted woodlots have appeared on the landscape. We investigated bird occurrence and nesting (nest success) and migration (fattening) performance in the two habitat types to address the question of whether anthropogenic habitats could substitute for lost riparian habitats within the MNRR. Nesting success was generally similar between the two habitat types, but several breeding species of MNRR riparian habitats occurred in low numbers or not at all in woodlots. Abundance and richness of Neotropical woodland migrant birds were generally similar between habitat types during both spring and fall migration periods. Moreover, measures of refueling performance, stress, and arthropod prey abundance in the two habitats were similar. These results suggest that anthropogenic woodlots can substitute, at least partially, for lost MNRR riparian habitats during breeding and migration. Importantly, however, some nesting species are mostly restricted to the larger and more vegetatively diverse woodland habitats of the MNRR, indicating that these habitats are of primary importance to conservation of these bird species.
