Characterization of banded whooping crane winter territories from 1992-93 to 1996-97 using GIS and remote sensing /

Whooping crane (Grus americana) winter territories were characterized by defining territory boundaries, describing territory land-cover, and evaluating variable territory establishment. Whooping cranes in the Aransas / Wood Buffalo population winter in the salt marshes of the Texas coastal bend. P...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bonds, Cinda Jean
Format: Thesis Book
Language:English
Published: [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified] ; 2000.
Subjects:

MARC

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245 1 0 |a Characterization of banded whooping crane winter territories from 1992-93 to 1996-97 using GIS and remote sensing /  |c by Cinda Jean Bonds. 
264 1 |a [Place of publication not identified] :  |b [publisher not identified] ;  |c 2000. 
300 |a xi, 106 leaves :  |b illustrations, maps ;  |c 28 cm. +  |e 1 CD ROM. 
336 |a text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent 
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502 |b M.S.  |c Texas A&M University  |d 2000. 
504 |a Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-66). 
500 |a Vita. 
500 |a "Major subject: Forestry". 
530 |a Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics. 
520 |a Whooping crane (Grus americana) winter territories were characterized by defining territory boundaries, describing territory land-cover, and evaluating variable territory establishment. Whooping cranes in the Aransas / Wood Buffalo population winter in the salt marshes of the Texas coastal bend. Pairs and families occupy and defend territories on Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Matagorda Island, San Jose Island, St. Charles Bay, and Welder Flats. This study identified whooping crane territory land-cover characteristics and will aid in construction of whooping crane habitat from dredge spoil. Whooping crane winter census locations were entered into ArcView Geographic Information System (GIS) and used to delineate territory boundaries with the minimum convex polygon method. Only banded pairs and families were included in the dataset. Remote sensing was used to create land-cover maps of the whooping crane wintering grounds from digital orthophotos. The landscape metrics of territory area, percentage of land-cover types, land-cover patch density, and density of edge between salt marsh and salt marsh open water, were used to characterize each territory. Mean territories were tested for differences among locations, winter years, and chick presence using 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Differences were found (P < 0.05) among locations for all landscape metrics tested. No differences (P > 0.05) were found in landscape metrics among winter years or chick presence. Aransas National Wildlife Refuge had the smallest mean territory size with the largest percentage of salt marsh and most fragmented salt marsh open water. San Jose Island had the largest mean territory size with the largest percentage of fragmented salt marsh open water and fragmented salt marsh. St. Charles Bay and Welder Flats had the most variable territories, and had the least salt marsh open water. Territory comparison on each location showed that land-cover composition within winter territories was highly variable. Hypotheses are proposed to explain why some locations may be more suitable. However, crane behavior may have greater influence on territory establishment than habitat composition. Recommended land-cover composition was 50% salt marsh (5-6.5 patches / ha), 30-40% salt marsh open water (10-16 patches / ha), and < 10% grasslands (8.9 patches / ha). 
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