Climate Change Management Strategies - Migratory Shorebirds & Wetlands

Introduction

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Wetland ecosystems across North America’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) serve as transitional habitats between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. These wetlands have unique soil conditions, plants, and wildlife that contribute to valuable ecosystem services, such as nutrient cycling, flood control, and groundwater recharge (Hoagland, n.d.). Migratory shorebirds like sandpipers and plovers rely on these environments as stopover sites that allow them to rest and refuel on aquatic food sources in the saturated soils and shallow waters as they move between seasonal ranges (Albanese et al., 2012). 

Wetland habitats experience periods of varied inundation based on regional precipitation, runoff, and evapotranspiration rates. As climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.

Learn more about climate change affects the precipitation and temperature patterns in the region, altered inundation periods may pose a challenge for the species dependent on wetland ecosystems. Climate change research indicates that the changing climate patterns, wetland characteristics, and land use will contribute to decreased probability of wetland inundation, with varying impacts across season and location (Londe et al., 2022). The resulting shifts in wetland connectivity pose a threat to migratory shorebirds. 

Land managers across the SGP need greater access to climate-informed projections as they decide where to prioritize wetland and shorebird conservation efforts. Researchers from Oklahoma State University (OSU) developed models that show future wetland inundation patterns, and they gathered shorebird habitat and movement data to better understand how these changes affect habitat connectivity and use along migration paths. They also surveyed land managers’ current practices to better apply research findings for actionable conservation strategies. As climate change continues to impact these wetland ecosystems, researchers and managers must work together to assess the needs for the future development of long-term wetland management tools.

Key Issues Addressed

Drainage for land development and agriculture have contributed to the loss of half the wetlands across the United States. As climate change impacts increase, wetlands face additional threats (USFWS, 2024). Wetlands have varying inundation periods ranging from permanent, semi-permanent, or temporary based on how often surface water is present (Albanese & Davis, 2013). The most common climate change expectations for the SGP include less precipitation predictability and increased frequency and duration of extreme droughts and heat waves. Many wetlands in this region depend on precipitation runoff as their main water source, so these events greatly affect seasonal shifts in inundation patterns (Londe et al., 2023). Additional modeling is needed to predict which regions of the SGP will experience the most severe impacts. 

As wetlands face decreased inundation periods due to climate change, there is less connectivity between these habitats, limiting stopover sites for migratory shorebirds. Wetlands supply the ideal feeding and resting areas for the twenty-nine shorebird species with migration pathways that pass through the SGP. Bird species like sandpipers in the family Scolopacidae and plovers in the family Charadriidae depend on wetlands for proper vegetation, landscape, and water conditions as they travel between breeding and nonbreeding areas. Researchers needed a greater understanding of how well these birds adapt to increasing variations in habitat availability.

Since natural resource and land managers across the SGP already observe adverse climate change impacts on wetlands they oversee, researchers also needed information about the adaptation strategies currently in use. They wanted more insight into management practices, goals, information sources, and climate adaptation barriers to ensure the biological study results would translate to the development of more effective management strategies. 

Project Goals

• Model wetland vulnerabilities with a combination of climate projections, watershed characteristics, and land use information to show the variations in future wetland inundation patterns across the SGP. 
• Track shorebird migration patterns to assess habitat connectivity needs and examine how birds responded to decreased wetland availability in past droughts. 
• Understand land manager needs to ensure research findings are actionable for long-term climate adaptation and habitat protection plans. 

Project Highlights

• Climate Models Highlight Most Impacted Areas: The models consistently show fewer inundated wetlands across a range of climate projection scenarios for the SGP. Effects will vary by region, with the greatest decreases in wetland inundation expected in the northeast. For the SGP as a whole, models indicate a more consistent decrease in wetlands during the spring migration season compared to the fall. These results help researchers identify where and when increased precipitation variability poses the largest threat to wetlands dependent on precipitation runoff, identifying areas of focus for future conservation efforts. 
• Combined Shorebird Data Sources Guide Responses: Shorebird migration data indicates broad linkages between wetland sites. Researchers collected migration data across the SGP using telemetry, GPS methods, and eBird Citizen Science data from 2006 to 2021. Multiple data sources allow researchers to compare migration patterns across seasons with varying precipitation conditions. They assessed variation in shorebird habitat use alongside wetland availability, gaining insight into birds’ abilities to gauge habitat conditions and adjust their movements accordingly. Greater knowledge of shorebird habitat use and adaptation capabilities helped researchers understand implications of future wetland changes to shorebirds.
• Land Manager Surveys Combine Human Dimensions and Biological Models: Refuge biologists and state park managers from Nebraska to Texas responded to virtual surveys, helping researchers understand current wetland management practices. An online survey provided researchers with 73 responses from managers across nine states, with the majority coming from government employees. Results showed that climate adaptation strategies currently focus on short-term projects like vegetation management or invasive species invasive species
  An invasive species is any plant or animal that has spread or been introduced into a new area where they are, or could, cause harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health. Their unwelcome presence can destroy ecosystems and cost millions of dollars.
  
  Learn more about invasive species removal, and it can be difficult to coordinate wetland protection efforts across the SGP’s broad geographic range. These surveys established an effective outreach process that will continue to guide the identification of wetland manager information needs to develop future adaptation recommendations based on the study’s biological findings.

Lessons Learned

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Engaging land managers at the beginning of a conservation study helps researchers address dominant concerns and develop effective science products. While the conversations with land managers were originally a small part of this ecology-based study, researchers soon realized the central role land managers play in forming applicable management recommendations. Project leads brought in experts from OSU and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation to expand the human dimensions component of the study through land manager surveys. The results helped researchers rethink how they displayed climate modeling data and described the key relationships between climate conditions, availability of different wetland types, and shorebird habitat use. These adjustments allowed them to focus on the conditions and scenarios managers see on the land that lead to context-specific management decisions, such as those based on varying precipitation conditions.

Conveying the importance of wetlands across stakeholder groups is a key component of preserving these ecosystems. Since the majority of land across the SGP is privately owned, conservation efforts require support from private landowners, who need a greater understanding of the benefits wetlands provide. Future research and communication initiatives can increase awareness of wetland functions like nutrient cycling, water filtration, and high biodiversity, which support drought resilience, wildlife habitats, agriculture, and recreation opportunities.

Modeling dynamic systems provides opportunities to explore multiple complexities. This project combined large datasets, including climate projections, wetland inundation factors, and shorebird observation data. Researchers assessed differing imagery types and examined the tradeoffs between data displays. The various components posed unique challenges, such as incorporating numerous climate projections and considering nuanced citizen science data submissions from eBird. This interdisciplinary approach yields results with meaningful applications for a wide array of stakeholders.

Next Steps

• Continue data collection for shorebirds and other migratory waterbirds across Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Use enhanced GPS tracking techniques to increase the understanding of bird ranges, routes, and patterns, especially for ESA listed, culturally significant, and game bird species. 
• Define which stakeholder groups need to be addressed to engage as many people as possible in wetland protection, including state, federal, or tribal agency resource managers and private landowners. 
• Expand land manager surveys to understand what motivates private landowner participation in programs such as land easements and restoration work. Surveys will also explore the conservation barriers private landowners face. 
• Develop an interactive web-based viewer to help land managers implement adaptation strategies. This tool should provide access to visualizations of wetland climate projections, priority rankings of different wetlands and regions for shorebird species of concern, and variations in precipitation and seasonal wetland inundation patterns across geographic locations. It will incorporate stakeholder feedback to ensure usability and enhance the decision-making process. 

Funding Partners

• South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center
• Bollenbach Endowed Chair in Wildlife Management

Resources

• Albanese, G. et al (2012). “Spatiotemporal scaling of North American continental interior wetlands: implications for shorebird conservation.” Landscape Ecology 27(6): 328-340. 
• Albanese, G. & Davis, C. A. (2013). “Broad-scale Relationships between shorebirds and landscapes in the Southern Great Plains.” The Auk 130(1): 88−97. 
• Hoagland, K. D. (n.d.). “Wetlands.” 
• Londe, D. W. et al. (2022). “Inundation of depressional wetlands declines under a changing climate.” Climate Change 172(27). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03386-z   
• Londe, D. W. et al. (2023). “Climate change causes declines and greater extremes in wetland inundation in a region important for wetland birds.” Ecological Applications 34(2): e2930. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2930
• U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service. (2024, March 22). “Continued Decline of Wetlands Documented in New U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Report.” 

Contacts

• David W. Londe, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: david_londe@fws.gov
• Craig Davis, Oklahoma State University: craig.a.davis@okstate.edu
• Scott Loss, Oklahoma State University: scott.loss@okstate.edu

CART Lead Author

Jessica Zimmerman, Case Study Author, CART

Suggested Citation

Zimmerman, J.(2024). “Management Strategy Development for Southern Great Plains Wetlands and Migratory Shorebirds in a Changing Climate.” CART. Retrieved from https://www.fws.gov/project/climate-change-management-migratory-shorebirds-wetlands.