~ Demographics of grassland birds in the Nebraska Sandhills

We conducted most of our sampling in the central Nebraska Sandhills at the UNL Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory (GSL).  GSL is a 12,800 acre research and livestock production ranch with lowland, wet meadows dominated by cool-season grasses, forbs, and sedges, and drier upland pastures dominated by mostly warm-season grasses, forbs, and shrubs.  The Nebraska Sandhills is a unique ecosystem, and one of the largest remaining contiguous prairie systems in North America.  My dissertation papers focus on the demographics of the Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) as a function of habitat and land management, including models of 1) habitat selection, survival, and fecundity for nests, and 2) habitat selection and survival of fledglings.  We will also use these vital-rate parameters to model population growth and viability within a range of survival probabilities for adults.