Nest and brood survival of Ring-necked Ducks in relation to anthropogenic development and wetland attributes

Charlotte L. Roy

doi:10.5751/ace-01212-130120

Abstract

Roy, C. L. 2018. Nest and brood survival of Ring-necked Ducks in relation to anthropogenic development and wetland attributes. Avian Conservation and Ecology 13(1):20. https://doi.org/10.5751/ACE-01212-130120

Highlights

The boreal forest is expected to experience severe climate change impacts (Saporta et al 1998, IPCC 2001) and anthropogenic influences such as logging, mining, oil and gas extraction, and associated infrastructure are increasing (Slattery et al 2011)
Cumulative brood survival to 30 days was 0.263 (SE = 0.035). These findings indicate that roads may influence both nest and brood survival
Forty-five nests (39%) successfully hatched ≥ 1 duckling, 41 nests were destroyed by predators, 5 hens were killed before hatch, 17 nests were abandoned, 5 were flooded, and 2 nests had final fates that could not be determined from nest remains

Summary

Introduction

The boreal forest is expected to experience severe climate change impacts (Saporta et al 1998, IPCC 2001) and anthropogenic influences such as logging, mining, oil and gas extraction, and associated infrastructure are increasing (Slattery et al 2011). The combination of climate change and increasing development and fragmentation may interact and produce synergistic effects (Dale et al 2001). Concerns emanating from these impending changes have resulted in increased interest in understanding and conserving boreal forest waterfowl (Drever et al 2012, Holopainen et al 2015). Impacts of anthropogenic influences on waterfowl breeding in the boreal forest are largely unknown, in part because of historically low anthropogenic development in these remote locations (Slattery et al 2011, Holopainen et al 2015). In the hemiboreal forest, a southern transitional zone of the boreal forest (Brandt 2009), many of the predicted changes for the more northerly continuous boreal forest zone are already occurring (MNDNR 2006)

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