SpATS Study Background

The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of Canada encompasses approximately 770,000 square kilometres of the most important breeding habitat for waterfowl in Canada and the United States. Through studies like SpATS, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is working to better understand the PPR to guide and improve its conservation programs in the area.

Building on information learned during the Prairie Habitat Joint Venture Assessment, SpATS was launched in 2002 to determine how nesting success of Prairie waterfowl varies in relation to landscape composition throughout the PPR.

In addition, SpATS is gathering valuable new information about how waterfowl nesting success varies in relation to waterfowl population densities.

These are key questions remaining in planning conservation programs in the PPR. Information from SpATS will help in the development of better decision-making tools for conservation programs under the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.

Throughout Prairie Canada, there are 120 randomly selected SpATS study sites. Initial plans called for each site to be monitored twice over an 11-year period in both Parkland and Prairie biomes.

Study sites are arranged in clusters of six, each randomly selected to reflect different waterfowl densities and amounts of perennial vegetation such as hayland, pasture, grassland, trees and shrubs on the landscape. Since 2002, all 120 individual study sites, representing 20 study areas, have been monitored once. Six study areas have been monitored twice.

Information about waterfowl pair densities, waterfowl nesting success, duckling survival and predator abundance will be gathered. Data on vegetation and land-use characteristics of upland and wetland habitats also will be collected.

Information gathered through the study will be entered into a Geographic Information System (GIS). This will allow scientists to analyze relationships between landscape attributes (e.g., habitat types, land-use) and waterfowl population processes (e.g., pair densities, nesting success).

Disclaimer:

SpATS data presented on this Web site cannot be used without written permission from the authors.