Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Basin CESU
The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research on whether there has been a geographic shift in the breeding area source of the population-wide production of black brant (hereafter, brant) in the eastern Pacific Flyway and if so, what are the mechanisms driving the shift. Have increases in the number of brant nesting in the Arctic lead to greater production, potentially offsetting recorded declines in brant nesting at their primary breeding areas on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) in southwestern Alaska? The Pacific Flyway population of brant has increased 20% over the last 25 years despite a nearly 25% decline in the number of brant nesting on the YKD over the same time period. The YKD has traditionally been the primary breeding area for black brant in the eastern Pacific Flyway with a secondary breeding in the Arctic coastal areas of Alaska, northwestern Canada and northeastern Russia. Lacking is supportive evidence for a change in the origin of the brant productivity from the YKD to Arctic nesting areas and a mechanistic understanding of the reasons for the possible growth in the brant nesting population in the Arctic.
Office: Geological Survey
fgraves@usgs.gov
