UW Aquatic & Fishery Sciences Quantitative Seminar

Kate E Buenau

Marine Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Hydrology, habitat, and the value of information for piping plovers on the Missouri River.

Abstract

Piping plovers breeding on sandbars on the Missouri River are strongly affected both by natural variations in river flow and by alterations to the natural hydrograph from dam and reservoir operations. We use models of emergent sandbar habitat and plover populations to ask how habitat restoration will affect plover population size and recovery. In this talk I will first discuss what the models tell us about how hydrology affects plover dynamics and the ability to predict the success of restoration actions. Then I will demonstrate a method we are using to quantify the value of information gained from potential research in terms of cost savings for habitat restoration.