Date of Award
6-19-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Biology, MS
First Advisor
Than Boves
Committee Members
Sarah Webb; Stephen Mullin
Abstract
Globally, wetland habitats suffered major declines during the 20th century. In the 1990s, the United States government created the Wetland Reserve Program (later consolidated into the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program), to combat the loss of wetlands. Despite success in attracting landowners, minimal monitoring of properties enrolled into the program (easements) has occurred. In this study, we monitored avian communities at easements, compared avian diversity at easements to agriculture and bottomland forests, and quantified microhabitat, site-specific, and surrounding landscape features at easements. We also studied the demographic rates of an indicator species of bottomland forests, the Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) at easements. We found that avian communities at easements become more diverse as an easement progresses in age and are significantly different from agriculture, but at least functionally similar to mature bottomland forests. Easements also support breeding populations of Prothonotary Warblers that have similar demographic rates to studies from bottomland forests.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Dobson, Colin K., "Assessing the Effectiveness of Wetland Reserve Easements as Habitat for Birds in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley of Eastern Arkansas" (2026). Student Theses and Dissertations. 1196.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/1196
