Data and model code for assessing dabbling duck age ratios and corresponding environmental correlates in the North American Prairies, 1969-2015

Abstract

Fecundity estimates for demographic modeling are difficult to acquire at the regional spatial scales that correspond to climate shifts, land use impacts or habitat management programs, yet are important for evaluating such effects. While waterfowl managers have historically used harvest-based age ratios to assess fecundity at continental scales, widely available age ratios from late-summer banding data present an underutilized opportunity to examine a regional fecundity index with broad temporal replication. We used age ratios from banding data and hierarchical mixed-effect models to examine how fecundity of five North American dabbling duck species was affected by temporal variation in hydrological cycles, intra- and inter-specific density dependence and alternate prey availability, and whether those relationships were consistent across a broad geographic area. The data and code for these analysis are included here.