Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Louisiana
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

The Chenier Plain and coastal marsh system of southwest Louisiana has historically been a significant overwintering and spring migratory staging landscape for multiple waterfowl species and other migratory wetland dependent birds using the Mississippi Flyway and has provided critical ecological functions. Yet, the southwest Louisiana landscape has experienced tremendous anthropogenic changes dating back to the early 1800s that have set a course for altered system function, which continues to this day. Wintering waterfowl currently experience a highly altered landscape that likely exacerbates energetic demands resulting from changing food availability and high disturbance regimes (i.e. hunting pressure and frequent industrial disturbances [aviation traffic / hazing]). No longer a coastal prairie, the Chenier Plain is dominated by agricultural production. Predominantly rice – crawfish rotational production, hydrology across the prairie soils is intensively managed and compartmentalized within leveed units and determined by agricultural economic decisions rather than natural hydroperiods. This results in a “postage stamp” mosaic of “working wetlands” each with unique hydroperiods that vary from one another spatially and temporally. This project is a collaboration with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and seeks to evaluate factors that influence habitat use, movement, and behavior of individual ducks marked with satellite telemetry devices in south Louisiana. Data from this research will be used to further inform how waterfowl use habitat within an agricultural system, particularly diversely managed rice and crawfish fields.