Piping plover foraging ecology in the Great Plains

The Great Plains piping plover (Charadrius melodus) population was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1986. The challenge for managers of this population is to increase the fledging rate and to ensure that there is sufficient habitat to support an increasing population. According to the revised recovery plan, there are insufficient quantitative data that relate habitat characteristics to reproductive success in riverine habitat. In particular, additional data are needed to determine if piping plover reproduction is limited by food abundance at breeding sites. The goal of this research was to determine whether piping plover chick survival was limited by foraging site quality on the Missouri River. Productivity has historically varied among river reaches. The alkali wetlands, reported to be very productive, serve as an index to the upper limit of reproductive potential. We compared indices of foraging site quality, chick growth and survival among a reservoir, two river reaches and alkali wetland sites from 2001-2003. We compared piping plover use of protected shoreline and exposed shoreline to availability along two reaches of the Missouri River (Gavins and Garrison). We also examined piping plover chick diet. Chick weight gains were higher at alkali wetlands than Gavins and Garrison. Invertebrate numbers were higher at the alkali wetlands than the three river sites and lowest downstream of the cold water release dam. Invertebrate biomass was highest at the alkali wetlands and downstream of the warm water release dam and lowest downstream of the cold water release dam. Invertebrate biomass downstream of the cold water release dam was the lowest of all 4 sites. There was no relationship between chick daily survival rates and invertebrate biomass or predator presence. Although Diptera occurred more frequently (23% 64%) at all sites (sticky traps), Coleoptera occurred most frequently in the fecal samples (fecal analysis; 69% to 89%). On the Missouri River, protected shorelines were important foraging sites for piping plovers during the breeding season. We also found that sandbars