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| My Ph.D. dissertation focuses on the ecology of Long-billed Curlews breeding in an agricultural landscape. Like many species, Long-billed Curlews have lost much of their historic breeding and winter habitat to development. In the Great Plains, where much of the native prairie has been converted into row crop agriculture, the once abundant and widespread Long-billed Curlew has dwindled to a few declining populations. Yet in places like the Great Basin, Long-billed Curlews are flourishing in large part because of agricultural development. Today, hayfields and cattle pastures of the Great Basin support large numbers of breeding Long-billed Curlews. These non-native grasslands closely mimic the native vegetation structure used by breeding curlews. My research focuses on identifying best management practices on irrigated hayfields for the benefit of the Long-billed Curlew and farmers alike.
I conduct my field work in Ruby Valley, Nevada . In Nevada, no single site is as important for breeding Long-billed Curlews as Ruby Valley. Containing approximately 6,000 ha of flood irrigated hayfields and 8,000 ha of herbaceous rangeland, Ruby Valley provides critical breeding habitat for more than 500 Long-billed Curlews. Ruby Valley hayfields support some of the densest assemblages of breeding curlews ever reported, averaging 7 males/100 ha in some areas. Virtually all this habitat is on private land. |
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Specifically my research focuses on:
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