Nest microclimate and concealment are critical components to the development of avian embryos; however, the correlation between microclimate and nest survival are unclear, especially since trade-offs exists between protecting the nest from predators while maintaining suitable microclimate. To address this question for Lesser Prairie-Chickens, we placed data loggers adjacent to nests to quantify temperature and aridity distribution functions, 2010-2014. We developed a suite of a priori models using the nest survival model in Program MARK to estimate nest survival probabilities. We monitored 105 nests among three ecoregions and our results indicate the southern distribution was hotter and drier during incubation compared to the northern distributions, there was considerable inter-annual variability in nest microclimate within ecoregions, the percentage of microclimate recordings where temperature was > 34�C and aridity was < -23mmHG during the day explained nest survival to the greatest extent, and microclimate received more model support for nest survival compared to visual obstruction. Our results suggest conservation of the species would benefit from the identification of thermal landscapes that promote cooler, more humid conditions during nest incubation.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.