Lead Institution(s): US Geological Survey
Project Lead: Elise Zipkin
Collaborator(s): Andy Royle (USGS) Emily Silverman (USFWS)
Location: Atlantic Flyway
Focal Species: Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis), Common Eider (Somateria mollissima), Black Scoter (Melanitta americana), Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), White-winged Scoter (Melanitta delgandi)
Project Description: Little is known about the population trends and habitat preferences of sea ducks wintering along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. and Canada. The difficulty in gathering information on sea ducks during the winter is due not only to the relative inaccessibility of their wintering sites, but also their high mobility and patchy, aggregated distributions. In this project, we are analyzing the spatial and temporal wintering distributions of five sea duck species (Black Scoters, Surf Scoters, White-winged Scoters, Common Eiders and Long-tail Ducks) using the historical Atlantic Flyway Wintering Sea Duck Survey (1991-2002), which have not been previously examined in detail. We built statistical models to relate observed nearshore distributions of sea ducks to important habitat characteristics to determine wintering preferences and distribution trends along the eastern Canadian and U.S. coast.
SDJV121 Final Report FY09
Related Publications:
Zipkin, E.F., Gardner, B., Gilbert, A.T. et al. Distribution patterns of wintering sea ducks in relation to the North Atlantic Oscillation and local environmental characteristics. Oecologia 163, 893–902 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1622-4
Zipkin, E. F., J. B. Leirness, B. P. Kinlan, A. F. O’Connell, and E. D. Silverman. 2014. Fitting statistical distributions to sea duck count data: Implications for survey design and abundance estimation. Statistical Methodology 17:67–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stamet.2012.10.002
D. Silverman, D. T. Saalfeld, J. B. Leirness, M. D. Koneff. 2013. Wintering Sea Duck Distribution Along the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management4: 178–198. https://doi.org/10.3996/122012-JFWM-107
