Agriculture

NPWRC is leading a partnership with North Dakota State University to examine ecological, social, and financial considerations of farming practices within temporarily-ponded wetlands. There has been a long history of cropping prairie pothole wetlands which are embedded within farm fields. Often wet conditions during spring or summer prevent farmers from getting a harvestable yield from these areas...

Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) is investigating limitations to restoring abundant aquatic macroinvertebrate populations to Minnesota wetlands and shallow lakes. Recent research on larger more permanent wetlands in Minnesota indicates that there have been decreases in quality of wetlands of use by ducks. That research also describes a decline in abundance of amphipods, a shrimp...

The Prairie Pothole Region of the northern Great Plains annually hosts 50–80% of North America’s ducks during the breeding season. Accordingly, there are significant government and private funds that go to conservation for the purposes of improving duck production in the region. The Prairie Pothole Region ecosystem has a number of stressors, intensive agriculture being chief among them. The...

Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center (NPWRC) recently completed a project aimed at understanding the impacts of wetland drainage on wetlands that receive drainage water. The biological communities of prairie pothole wetlands evolved in a hydrologically dynamic system due to periodic wet and dry conditions. NPWRC research indicates that relative to wetlands in undrained landscapes, wetlands...

This effort is aimed at understanding how productivity of larger and more permanent wetlands is influenced by a combination of inter-annual hydrological dynamics and land-use impacts. Historically, aquatic-invertebrates productivity and abundance was driven by inter-annual hydrological dynamics because drying periods allow for nutrient cycling and a subsequent pulse of productivity when wet...

Rising commodity crop prices, increased federal subsidies for biofuels, such as corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel, and reduction in U.S. Farm Bill conservation programs have facilitated rapid land-use changes in the Northern Great Plains (NGP). Although renewable biofuels are touted as a mechanism for increasing energy security and potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, little is...

The recent expansion of unconventional oil and gas development in the Williston Basin of North America has raised concerns among managers about potential negative effects of such development on grassland birds. Others, however, have argued that agricultural land use in the region has had a much larger impact and that energy development may be a comparatively small stressor for grassland birds...

Since its inception in 1933, the U.S. Farm Bill has been one of the most influential federal policies for agriculture and food production. Provisions within the Farm Bill have profound influence on global trade, nutrition programs, commodity crop programs, rural communities, and land conservation. Northern Prairie’s research quantifies the impact on pollinator forage and health of USDA...

Societal dependence on insects for pollination of agricultural crops has risen amidst concerns over global pollinator declines. Habitat loss and lack of forage have been implicated in the decline of managed and native pollinators in the U.S. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center is conducting a regional research project to understand how land use affects honey bee colony health, and the...

Waterbird distribution and habitat use are influenced by human activities of agriculture and land-management practices, such as grazing or burning. For many waterbird species, our knowledge of their ecology and factors influencing their abundance and importance of different habitats is very limited. Such information can help direct more effective habitat restoration, management, and conservation...