Research Projects

Part of the Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research's (IWWR) mandate is to perform imaginative and visionary research for Ducks Unlimited. Research projects are being continually developed and staged all over Canada and the United States.

Featured Projects

Graduate Fellowships

Science Guiding Conservation: The Next Generation

Educating the next generation of conservation scientists is critical for ensuring Ducks Unlimited's success continues well into the future.  As such, Ducks Unlimited supports a number of graduate students annually as they pursue important research questions across the continent.  Annually, students from throughout North America apply for these prestigious awards, and the competition is fierce.  In 2012, DU is supporting the following list of talented young scientists:

  • Lauren Bortolotti — The recovery of ecosystem function and biodiversity in restored prairie wetlands.
  • Jennifer Sheppard — Habitat selection trade-offs and reproductive success of mallards in the Prairie Parklands, Canada.
  • Jane Harms — Dynamics of Disease: The Origins and Ecology of Avian Cholera in Northern Canada
  • Mark Wiltermuth — Interaction of land use and wet-dry cycles on invertebrate populations in prairie wetlands: Implications for waterbird habitat conservation
  • Sarah Thompson — The impact of encroaching woody vegetation on waterfowl nest success and nest site selection.
  • Brandt W. Meixell — Prevalence, variation, and effects of low pathogenic avian influenza in waterfowl.

Past Fellowship Winners

  • Philip Lavretsky — Genetic Introgression and Conservation of the North American Mallard Complex
  • Nathan Senner — The impacts of global climate change on the annual cycle of long-distance migratory birds.
  • Mark T. Bidwell — Community Structure and Demography of Waterbirds in Southern Boreal Forests: Relationships with Environmental and Disturbance Gradients
  • Kirsty E.B. Gurney — Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Duckling Survival and Productivity in Temperate-Nesting Waterfowl
  • Anne Mini — Comparative Foraging Ecology of Dusky Canada and Cackling Geese Wintering in the Willamette Valley, Oregon
  • Rian Dickson — Postbreeding ecology of White-winged Scoters and Surf Scoters in western North America: wing moult chronology, body mass variation and foraging behaviour.
  • Pauline M. Bloom — Factors Affecting Mallard Duckling Survival in Western Canada: Implications for Conservation Planning
  • Leah M. Domine — Mechanisms Influencing Carbon Sequestration in Prairie Pothole Wetlands
  • Ryan J. Fisher — Effect of Landscape Composition on Habitat Selection of Priority Grassland Birds
  • Katherine Mehl (Drake) — Brood ecology and population dynamics of King Eiders
  • Kiel L. Drake — The role of dispersal in population dynamics of breeding Ross's Geese
  • Cindy Swoboda — Breeding ecology and population dynamics of White-winged Scoters
  • Jason H. Caswell — Population ecology, survival and dispersal of Ross's geese at McConnell River, Nunavut
  • Jean-Michael Devink — Comparative Ecology and Reproductive Energetics of Boreal Breeding Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Ducks and White-winged Scoters
  • Daniel W. Coulton — Consequences of dispersal in yearling mallards: sources of immigrants and site familiarity benefits
  • Vanessa B. Harriman — Parasite-host interactions in colonial artic-nesting geese
  • Joshua J. Traylor — Comparative aspects of recruitment and factors influencing recruitment in geese: Long-term changes in body condition, fecundity, nest survival, and juvenile survival of lessor snow and ross's geese
  • Chris Nicolai — Implications of reproductive decisions and fitness of black brant nesting on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
  • Christa MacNevin — Gap Analysis and Assessment of Important Breeding and Migratory Habitat for Shorebirds within Alberta's Prairie Grassland
  • Michael J. Anteau — Nutrient reserve dynamics of lesser scaup during spring migration in the Mississippi Flyway
  • Nicola Koper — Effect of Habitat Management on Ducks and Songbirds
  • Pamela O — Effects of foraging by Brant, Canada and Lesser Snow Geese on thresholds of Festuca rubra
  • Bruce Friesen-Pankratz — Biotic and abiotic determinants of adsorption and degradation of agricultural pesticides in prairie wetlands
  • Rafael Otfinowski — Ecosystem consequences of smooth brome invasions into native prairie habitats in the northern Great Plains
  • James Leafloor — Philopatry, geographic variation in body size, and the genetic structure of the southern James Bay population of Canada Geese
  • Greg Robertson — Winter philopatry, habitat choices and population biology of lesser snow geese, Pacific brant and harlequin ducks in the lower mainland of B.C.
  • Scott Walter — Nesting ecology of Eastern Prairie Population (EPP) Canada geese
  • Diana Hamilton — The relationship between common eiders and the intertidal community in which they feed
  • Mark Miller — Effects of agricultural intensification on breeding mallards and other ducks in the prairie-parkland region to the US and Canada

Completed Projects

Submitting Research Proposals

IWWR welcomes research proposals and applications for graduate fellowship grants. Please see our submissions page.

 

 

 
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