Jessica Novobilsky
Paul Akpejeluh
Lauren L. Berry
Michael J. Budd
Michael C. Ferrara
Lindsey A. LaBrie
Lauren Luther
Vinita Karki
David Krementz
Karen Rowe
Michael Shaw
Kenneth Wilson
Auriel M.V. Fournier
Caleb P. Roberts
2026
<p><span id="_mce_caret" data-mce-bogus="1" data-mce-type="format-caret"><span>Secretive marsh birds experienced precipitous declines due to losses in wetland habitat across North America. However, from 1998 to 2004, wetland area increased, and between 2009 and 2019, the extent of emergent wetlands did not significantly decrease. This raises the question: how did secretive marsh birds, which are tied to emergent wetlands, respond to this period of relative stability in wetland area? Here, we use </span><i>Rallus elegans</i><span> (King Rail) occurrence data collected in 2005, 2006, 2012, and 2017 in the Arkansas Delta in the United States to test the hypothesis that a period of stability in wetland vegetation is linked to stable </span><i>Rallus elegans</i><span> occupancy. Specifically, we sought to (1) quantify relationships between </span><i>R. elegans</i><span> occupancy and land cover, (2) quantify temporal trends in </span><i>R. elegans</i><span> occupancy, and (3) characterize changes in land cover types linked to </span><i>R. elegans</i><span> occupancy. We developed spatial multi-season occupancy models, and our top model contained the categorical year effect but showed no trend in </span><i>R. elegans</i><span> occupancy between 2005 and 2017, instead showing high interannual variation in occupancy. We found strong associations between </span><i>R. elegans</i><span> occupancy and emergent wetlands (positive) and elevation (negative). From 2005 to 2017 in the ∼3.7 million ha Arkansas Delta, rice crop cover decreased by 294,750 ha, emergent wetlands increased by 6,719 ha, and all other cover types increased or decreased by < 7,500 ha. Thus, although emergent wetlands did increase, the total area of emergent wetlands in 2016 (22,262 ha) comprised <1% of the Arkansas Delta. Our results support the hypothesis that </span><i>R. elegans</i><span> occupancy stabilized during a time when the main habitat type </span><i>R. elegans</i><span> depend on, emergent wetlands, also stabilized in spatial extent. There is an opportunity to turn the tide in </span><i>R. elegans</i><span> declines by conserving extant emergent wetlands and creating new emergent wetlands.</span></span></p>
application/pdf
10.1093/ornithapp/duaf061
en
Oxford Academic
Rallus elegans (King Rail) occupancy is stable, but habitat is in short supply in the Arkansas Delta
article