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Sources: Brett 1xbet best casino website , 785-532-0120, bsanderc@k-state.edu;
Samantha 1xbet best casino website , 785-532-0978, 1xbet best casino website @k-state.edu;
and Robert Robel, 785-532-6644, rjrobel@k-state.edu
Photos 1xbet best casino website . Contact media@k-state.edu or 785-532-2535.
News release prepared by: Stephanie Jacques, 785-532-0101, sjacques@ksu.edu
Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010
RESEARCHERS INVESTIGATE CAUSES OF POPULATION DECLINES OF 1xbet best casino website IN KANSAS
MANHATTAN -- In an avian equivalent of a rowdy campus bar, male Greater 1xbet best casino website gather at booming grounds every spring to display for females. But long-term monitoring programs in Kansas have indicated major declines in this once common bird of the tallgrass prairie, according to two Kansas State University ecologists.
Investigating the population biology of 1xbet best casino website has been the research focus of Brett Sandercock and Samantha Wisely, both associate professors in K-State's Division of Biology.
&1xbet best casino website ;Understanding ecological causes of declining numbers is an important first step in conservation,&1xbet best casino website ; Sandercock said. &1xbet best casino website ;Our goal is to use a combination of genetic and demographic methods to understand the impacts of land use and land-cover change on prairie chicken population dynamics.&1xbet best casino website ;
Field work at three sites in the Flint Hills and Smoky Hills has been directed by three K-State graduate students in biology: Lance McNew, Council Grove; Lyla Hunt, Manhattan; and Andy Gregory, Wamego. The project started in 2006, and the research team has now captured and collected genetic samples from more than 1,300 1xbet best casino website ; put radio collars on 320 females; located 380 nests; and collected 16,500 locations to describe movements and habitat requirements.
&1xbet best casino website ;Our students have had great working relationships with private landowners,&1xbet best casino website ; Sandercock said. &1xbet best casino website ;The project couldn’t have been completed without support of ranchers and local communities.&1xbet best casino website ;
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&1xbet best casino website ;Population declines are clearly being driven by dismal rates of survival for nests, broods and incubating females,&1xbet best casino website ; Sandercock said. &1xbet best casino website ;Most losses are due to predation, and our results are remarkably consistent among sites and years.&1xbet best casino website ;
Predators have been investigated by videotaping 1xbet best casino website chicken nests and by deploying scent stations. Skunks, badgers and even gopher snakes have been recorded destroying eggs and young.
Reproductive success is so low that in some years at least seven nesting females are needed to produce a single juvenile 1xbet best casino website chicken, Sandercock said.
&1xbet best casino website ;High levels of predation appear to be related to rangeland management,&1xbet best casino website ; he said. &1xbet best casino website ;Intensive grazing and annual burning removes vegetative cover that prairie chickens need for concealment during nesting, and the spread of woody plants in areas of fire suppression has aided recovery of predator populations.&1xbet best casino website ;
&1xbet best casino website ;Regional managers are very interested in our research results,&1xbet best casino website ; Wisely said. &1xbet best casino website ;We look forward to providing the field data needed to develop improved mitigation strategies.&1xbet best casino website ;
The collaborative research effort was initiated by the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative Wildlife Workgroup Grassland and Shrub Steppe Species Subgroup to establish whether there are effects from wind structures to 1xbet best casino website in the Midwest. The research team is focusing current research efforts around the Meridian Way Wind Farm, a 201-megawatt wind facility recently built in north central Kansas. The effects of rangeland management on productivity of 1xbet best casino website were discovered before turbines were erected. New data from ongoing monitoring since completion of construction could be used to improve siting guidelines for wind power facilities in Kansas, according to Sandercock and Wisely.
Oversight for the research project was provided by the National 1xbet best casino website Coordinating Collaborative, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, BP 1xbet best casino website Energy, Competitive Power Ventures, Horizon 1xbet best casino website Energy, Iberdrola Renewables and Next Era Energy Resources.
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