Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Jan 24;14(1):e0210878. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210878. eCollection 2019.
Wetlands enrolled in the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) are established as a means of restoring wetland ecosystems and wildlife habitat on private, agricultural land. In West Virginia, USA, ACEP wetlands have never been evaluated to determine how they function as wildlife habitat in comparison to other available wetland habitat in the state. We measured the wintering occupancy of Passerellidae species and apparent avian species richness on ACEP wetlands and a set of reference wetlands located on public land in West Virginia to evaluate if ACEP wetlands are being used similarly by avian species to other available wetland habitat in the state. Apparent avian species richness and the occupancy probability of four Passerellidae species-song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis), swamp sparrows (Melospiza georgiana), and white-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis)-did not differ between ACEP and reference sites. In addition to other vegetative and habitat associations for each species, dark-eyed junco occupancy was negatively correlated with wetland size while swamp sparrow occupancy and apparent avian species richness were positively associated with wetland size. These results indicate that ACEP wetlands are providing winter avian habitat as well as another source of wetland habitat in the state. Maintaining and expanding ACEP wetlands in West Virginia would continue to provide wetland systems in areas that are otherwise lacking these habitats.
湿地被纳入农业保护地役权计划(ACEP)是为了恢复私人农业土地上的湿地生态系统和野生动物栖息地。在美国西弗吉尼亚州,ACEP 湿地从未经过评估,以确定它们作为野生动物栖息地的功能与该州其他可用湿地栖息地相比如何。我们测量了 ACEP 湿地和位于西弗吉尼亚州公共土地上的一组参考湿地的冬季雀形目物种的居留率和明显的鸟类物种丰富度,以评估 ACEP 湿地是否被鸟类物种以与该州其他可用湿地栖息地相似的方式利用。在 ACEP 和参考地点,雀形目物种的明显鸟类物种丰富度和四种雀形目物种(歌雀、暗眼灯草雀、沼泽雀和白喉雀)的居留概率没有差异。除了每种物种的其他植被和栖息地关联外,暗眼灯草雀的居留率与湿地面积呈负相关,而沼泽雀的居留率和明显的鸟类物种丰富度与湿地面积呈正相关。这些结果表明,ACEP 湿地为冬季鸟类提供了栖息地,也是该州另一种湿地栖息地的来源。在西弗吉尼亚州维持和扩大 ACEP 湿地将继续为缺乏这些栖息地的地区提供湿地系统。