Spatiotemporal variation in mechanisms driving regional-scale population dynamics of a Threatened grassland bird.

ABSTRACT: To achieve national population targets for migratory birds, landscape-level conservation approaches are increasingly encouraged. However, knowledge of the mechanisms that drive spatiotemporal patterns in population dynamics are needed to inform scale-variant policy development. Using hierarchical Bayesian models and variable selection, we determined by which mechanism(s), and to what extent, changes in quantity and quality of surrogate grassland habitats contributed to regional variation in population trends of an obligatory grassland bird, Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorous). We used North American Breeding Bird Survey data to develop spatially explicit models of regional population trends over 25 years across 35 agricultural census divisions in Ontario, Canada. We measured the stren

SUBMITTER: Ethier DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5478086 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature