EARLY HEARING DETECTION AND INTERVENTION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 2-5, 2021
(Virtually the same conference, without elevators, airplane tickets, or hotel room keys)
9/25/2018 | 2:25 PM - 2:40 PM | Spatial Patterns of Lesser Prairie-Chickens in Response to Different Disturbance Regimes | Eccles Conference Center Auditorium
Spatial Patterns of Lesser Prairie-Chickens in Response to Different Disturbance Regimes
Resource use by lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) is in response to two primary disturbances, fire and grazing. In the Mixed-Grass Prairie Ecoregion of the lesser prairie-chicken’s range, these factors interact to create a variety of vegetation patches throughout their life cycle. Lesser prairie- chickens must traverse the landscape to access these resources, and in so doing, expend energy and increase their susceptibility to predation. Therefore, optimal distribution of resources will benefit the species, especially during critical life stages such as the nesting and brood-rearing periods. We assessed how altered disturbances affect resource distribution, and subsequent hen movement. We analyzed the effects of rotational grazing and patch-burn grazing on lesser prairie-chickens in south-central Kansas. Using GPS telemetry, we tracked both hens and cattle within both patch-burn and rotationally grazed pastures to determine landscape features that influence their movements. We incorporated time-since-fire patches and cattle grazing density across our sites to model female lesser prairie-chicken home ranges and average daily movement between treatment types. Patch-burned treatments have greater variation in vegetation than rotationally grazed treatments. We expect that cattle will have greater daily movements and more random spatial patterns in rotationally grazed treatments. We hypothesize that hens will have lower daily movement and smaller home ranges in patch-burned grazed areas than rotationally grazed areas. We expect that hens will select distinct patches within pastures corresponding to time-since-fire and grazing intensity. This research will inform management methods within grassland systems to benefit lesser prairie-chickens.
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Presenters/Authors
Chris Gulick
(), ckgulick@ksu.edu;
Biology
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
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Nonfinancial -
David Haukos
(), dhaukos@ksu.edu;
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
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Nonfinancial -