{"pk":62901,"title":"Surveying Waterfowl Broods in Wetlands Using Aerial Drones","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Effective waterfowl management relies on the collection of relevant  demographic data to inform land-management decisions; however, some  types of data are difficult to obtain. For waterfowl, brood surveys are  difficult to conduct because wetland habitats often  obscure ducklings from being visually assessed. Here, we used  Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UAS) to assess what wetland habitat  characteristics influenced brood abundance in Suisun Marsh, California,  USA. Using a thermal-imaging camera, we surveyed 17 wetland  units that encompassed 332ha of flooded area on the premises of seven  waterfowl hunting clubs during the waterfowl breeding season.  Additionally, using a combination of multi-spectral imagery collected  from the UAS flights and LiDAR data from the previous  year, we mapped habitat composition within each unit to relate to brood  observation counts. From June 3–7, 2019, we identified 113 individual  broods comprising 827 ducklings. We found a positive relationship  between the number of broods observed and the proportion  of the unit that was flooded. We also found a positive relationship  between the number of broods observed and the area of effective  habitat—a metric of flooded habitat within two times the 95th-percentile  Euclidean distance that all broods were observed from  any vegetated cover. Brood surveys using UAS could complement the  traditional Breeding Population Survey and provide local managers with  fine-scale and timely information about shifts in brood abundance in the  region.","language":"en","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","short_name":"CC BY 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\n\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"waterfowl, brood, duck, duckling, drone, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Unmanned Aerial System, UAS, UAV, brood survey"}],"section":"Research Article","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3sk0450g","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Desmond","middle_name":"A.","last_name":"Mackell","name_suffix":"","institution":"US Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center, Dixon, CA 95620 USA","department":""},{"first_name":"Michael","middle_name":"L.","last_name":"Casazza","name_suffix":"","institution":"US Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center, Dixon, CA 95620 USA","department":""},{"first_name":"Cory","middle_name":"T.","last_name":"Overton","name_suffix":"","institution":"US Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center, Dixon, CA 95620 USA","department":""},{"first_name":"Kevin","middle_name":"J.","last_name":"Buffington","name_suffix":"","institution":"US Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center, Davis, CA 95616 USA","department":""},{"first_name":"Chase","middle_name":"M.","last_name":"Freeman","name_suffix":"","institution":"US Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center, Davis, CA 95616 USA","department":""},{"first_name":"Joshua","middle_name":"T.","last_name":"Ackerman","name_suffix":"","institution":"US Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center, Dixon, CA 95620 USA","department":""},{"first_name":"Karen","middle_name":"M.","last_name":"Thorne","name_suffix":"","institution":"US Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center, Davis, CA 95616 USA","department":""}],"date_submitted":"2024-08-05T20:46:57+01:00","date_accepted":"2024-08-05T20:46:57+01:00","date_published":"2024-09-11T08:00:00+01:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/jmie_sfews/article/62901/galley/48587/download/"}]}