2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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9/25/2018 | 11:35 AM - 11:50 AM | A Range–Wide Assessment on the Influence of Anthropogenic Structure Dispersion and Land Cover Patch Size on Lesser Prairie-Chicken Lek Attendance | Eccles Conference Center Auditorium

A Range–Wide Assessment on the Influence of Anthropogenic Structure Dispersion and Land Cover Patch Size on Lesser Prairie-Chicken Lek Attendance

The lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) has declined precipitously across its native range within the central and southern Great Plains of the United States. Across all four ecoregions within native prairies where lesser prairie-chickens occur, alterations such as the addition of anthropogenic structures have been shown to negatively affect the quality of nesting and brood-rearing habitat for females. However, the influence of these structures and other land cover patterns on lek attendance and persistence are unknown. Therefore, we used a long-term data set (1996–2015) to assess the influences of anthropogenic structures on lek attendance from annual count data. We developed dispersion index to account for the distribution of structures (e.g., density, distance, clustering) and land cover types (e.g., cropland, bare, shrubland, grassland, and Conservation Reserve Program lands) within 4.8 km of known leks. We assessed relationships among lek attendance (maximum number of birds per lek per year) and predictive variables including land cover patch indices and anthropogenic structure dispersion values with generalized linear-mixed models. Our results suggested that lesser prairie-chicken’s response to anthropogenic structure varied depending on the ecoregion and structure type. Likewise, responses to land cover patches varied across ecoregions with negative responses primarily associated with the conversion of native grasslands to agriculture. We speculate that responses varied due to the variation in landscape characteristics between ecoregions, and negative responses were associated with decreases in quality and quantity of available nesting and brooding habitat around leks.

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Presenters/Authors

Cody Griffin (), Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, cody.griffin@myfwc.com;