Combined effects of energy development and disease on greater sage-grouse

PLoS One. 2013 Aug 5;8(8):e71256. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0071256. Print 2013.

Abstract

Species of conservation concern are increasingly threatened by multiple, anthropogenic stressors which are outside their evolutionary experience. Greater sage-grouse are highly susceptible to the impacts of two such stressors: oil and gas (energy) development and West Nile virus (WNv). However, the combined effects of these stressors and their potential interactions have not been quantified. We used lek (breeding ground) counts across a landscape encompassing extensive local and regional variation in the intensity of energy development to quantify the effects of energy development on lek counts, in years with widespread WNv outbreaks and in years without widespread outbreaks. We then predicted the effects of well density and WNv outbreak years on sage-grouse in northeast Wyoming. Absent an outbreak year, drilling an undeveloped landscape to a high permitting level (3.1 wells/km²) resulted in a 61% reduction in the total number of males counted in northeast Wyoming (total count). This was similar in magnitude to the 55% total count reduction that resulted from an outbreak year alone. However, energy-associated reductions in the total count resulted from a decrease in the mean count at active leks, whereas outbreak-associated reductions resulted from a near doubling of the lek inactivity rate (proportion of leks with a last count = 0). Lek inactivity quadrupled when 3.1 wells/km² was combined with an outbreak year, compared to no energy development and no outbreak. Conservation measures should maintain sagebrush landscapes large and intact enough so that leks are not chronically reduced in size due to energy development, and therefore vulnerable to becoming inactive due to additional stressors.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animal Feed
  • Animals
  • Artemisia / growth & development
  • Bird Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Disease Outbreaks / statistics & numerical data
  • Endangered Species*
  • Extinction, Biological*
  • Fossil Fuels / adverse effects*
  • Galliformes*
  • Industry
  • Male
  • Population Density
  • West Nile Fever / epidemiology
  • West Nile Fever / veterinary*
  • West Nile virus / isolation & purification
  • Wyoming

Substances

  • Fossil Fuels

Grants and funding

The Bureau of Land Management's Buffalo and Miles City Field Offices funded this project under BLM Contract 09-3225-0012 Number G09AC00013. The funders had no role in study design, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. They did collect some, but not all of the data the authors used as part of their routine monitoring efforts.