Influence of the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program wetland practices on winter occupancy of Passerellidae sparrows and avian species richness

PLoS One. 2019 Jan 24;14(1):e0210878. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210878. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Wetlands enrolled in the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) are established as a means of restoring wetland ecosystems and wildlife habitat on private, agricultural land. In West Virginia, USA, ACEP wetlands have never been evaluated to determine how they function as wildlife habitat in comparison to other available wetland habitat in the state. We measured the wintering occupancy of Passerellidae species and apparent avian species richness on ACEP wetlands and a set of reference wetlands located on public land in West Virginia to evaluate if ACEP wetlands are being used similarly by avian species to other available wetland habitat in the state. Apparent avian species richness and the occupancy probability of four Passerellidae species-song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis), swamp sparrows (Melospiza georgiana), and white-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis)-did not differ between ACEP and reference sites. In addition to other vegetative and habitat associations for each species, dark-eyed junco occupancy was negatively correlated with wetland size while swamp sparrow occupancy and apparent avian species richness were positively associated with wetland size. These results indicate that ACEP wetlands are providing winter avian habitat as well as another source of wetland habitat in the state. Maintaining and expanding ACEP wetlands in West Virginia would continue to provide wetland systems in areas that are otherwise lacking these habitats.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Agriculture
  • Animals
  • Biodiversity
  • Conservation of Natural Resources / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Conservation of Natural Resources / methods*
  • Ecosystem
  • Environmental Monitoring
  • Models, Biological
  • Seasons
  • Sparrows* / classification
  • Species Specificity
  • West Virginia
  • Wetlands*

Grants and funding

This project was funded through a cooperative agreement between the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design (https://www.davis.wvu.edu/), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (https://www.nrcs.usda.gov), grant number 68-3D47-15-10. This work also was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, McIntire Stennis projects (https://nifa.usda.gov/) WVA00124 (C.T. Rota), WVA00128 (C.M. Lituma), and WVA00117 (J.T. Anderson); and the West Virginia Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. J.T. Anderson was supported by the National Science Foundation (https://www.nsf.gov/)under Cooperative Agreement no. OIA-1458952 during manuscript preparation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.