Northeastern grasslands -- Southeastern pine savannas -- Tallgrass prairie -- Shortgrass prairie -- Northern plains -- Desert grasslands -- General implications for grassland bird conservation.

Grasslands are inherently dynamic in space and time evolving with frequent disturbance from fire and herbivores. Throughout much of the world, grasslands have been converted and fragmented and many remaining grasslands have become homogenous as a consequence of human actions. As a result, ecosystem function has declined and biodiversity loss has led to decreased ecological services. Of particular concern are highly imperiled grassland birds which have experienced greater population declines than any other habitat associated guild of birds in North America. Conservation efforts that restore heterogeneity to grasslands through the re-coupling of fire and grazing may be an effective strategy for stabilizing or increasing grassland bird populations. We examined Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) ecology, breeding bird community diversity and stability, and non-breeding bird community diversity and patch occupancy in tallgrass prairie with restored structural and compositional heterogeneity. We found that Greater Prairie-Chickens selected for patches with greater time since fire and grazing and that taller vegetation increased nest survival. Additionally, nests that survived were in cooler environments and prairie-chickens displayed fine scale thermal habitat selection as nest sites were nearly 4°C cooler than micro-sites within 2 meters of nests. We found that heterogeneity increased breeding bird community diversity and that increased heterogeneity resulted in greater community stability over time. Finally, non-breeding bird community diversity increased as a result of structural heterogeneity and occupancy modeling revealed that certain species selected for varying patches along a disturbance gradient (i.e, recently disturbed to relatively undisturbed) that resulted from fire and grazing dependent heterogeneity. Our findings add to a growing body of literature supporting the use of fire and grazing to create a shifting grassland mosaic that increases vegetation structural and compositional heterogeneity and maximizes native biodiversity within rangeland ecosystems through the conservation of natural patterns and processes. Additionally, these data provide evidence that variation in grassland structure resulting from the fire-grazing interaction may be important in moderating thermal environments and highlights the complex and interactive effects of restored ecological processes on ecosystems. We recommend future management efforts in rangelands focus on restored disturbance process to increase heterogeneity and improve grassland bird conservation.

Grassland birds are declining throughout most of their range. As a result, artificial habitats such as the agricultural fields of Vermont's Champlain Valley have been identified as important for grassland bird conservation. In order to address the regional and statewide concerns about grassland bird populations, Audubon Vermont has recognized two Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in the Champlain Valley, Dead Creek and Little Otter Creek. Audubon Vermont has also proposed the development of a Landscape-Level Important Bird Area Complex that would encompass these two IBAs and contribute to regional grassland bird conservation efforts as they are developed by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative and Partners in Flight. In the summer of 2003 I surveyed grassland birds in the two IBAs to assess the effects of agricultural management on breeding success. I also developed a habitat model that identifies the best potential habitat for grassland birds in the Champlain Valley, to help Audubon Vermont develop a strategy towards landscape-level grassland bird conservation.

Occupancy Estimation and Modeling: Inferring Patterns and Dynamics of Species Occurrence, Second Edition, provides a synthesis of model-based approaches for analyzing presence-absence data, allowing for imperfect detection. Beginning from the relatively simple case of estimating the proportion of area or sampling units occupied at the time of surveying, the authors describe a wide variety of extensions that have been developed since the early 2000s. This provides an improved insight about species and community ecology, including, detection heterogeneity; correlated detections; spatial autocorrelation; multiple states or classes of occupancy; changes in occupancy over time; species co-occurrence; community-level modeling, and more. Occupancy Estimation and Modeling: Inferring Patterns and Dynamics of Species Occurrence, Second Edition has been greatly expanded and detail is provided regarding the estimation methods and examples of their application are given. Important study design recommendations are also covered to give a well rounded view of modeling. - Provides authoritative insights into the latest in occupancy modeling - Examines the latest methods in analyzing detection/no detection data surveys - Addresses critical issues of imperfect detectability and its effects on species occurrence estimation - Discusses important study design considerations such as defining sample units, sample size determination and optimal effort allocation

For several decades, grassland bird populations have been facing consistent declines throughout North America with population declines>1.5% per year in the past 40 years in the eastern United States. If this current rate persists, the populations will be reduced to half their current size in less than 50 years. Multiple causes have been proposed to explain the decline of grassland birds, but loss of available habitat and declining habitat quality are recognized as key elements in the decline of this guild. The Champlain Valley has the potential to be an important area for the conservation of grassland birds due to large acreage of grassland habitat; however, management practices are not always compatible with grassland bird habitat requirements. Therefore, there is a need to focus conservation efforts in areas that will have the greatest probability of maintaining populations of grassland birds. This project was designed to identify priority areas for implementing conservation programs for grassland birds in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.

Dry grasslands support some specialised bird species, in particular bustards, stone-curlews and sandgrouse. However, they are disappearing in Europe, causing a decline in these birds' populations. This text presents the seminar which discussed the rate of decline / habitat loss, and recommendations for halting it, within a European context.