Spatial and temporal patterns of movement by male Black Scoters on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska (conducted in conjunction with study on black scoter breeding ecology)

Project Number: 21

Year Funded: 2002

Lead Institution(s): USGS Alaska Science Center

Project Lead: Paul Flint

Email:

Collaborator(s): Fred Broerman (USFWS), Jason Schamber (USGS), USFWS, MBM

Location: Alaska

Focal Species: Black Scoter (Melanitta americana)

Project Description: Within Alaska, Black Scoters (Melanitta nigra) principally breed on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (Y-K Delta), or in the Bristol Bay lowlands. Count indices of scoters from the North American Waterfowl Breeding Pair Survey have declined at an average rate of 2.2% per year in the strata Black Scoters predominate (USFWS 1999). Assuming constancy, this rate results in a 67% decline in population size over the 37-year survey period. Very little is known about the life history and ecology of Black Scoters, leaving potential causes for this decline unknown. Accordingly, Region 7 of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has identified Black Scoters as a ‘species at risk’.