Landscape Ecology

Forests are the dominant land cover along the floodplain of the Upper Mississippi River System. These forests are primarily made up of relatively short-lived and rapidly growing species, such as willow, cottonwood, silver maple, green ash, American elm, but with inclusions of slower growing and longer-lived species, such as oak and hickory species.

Mammalian predation is a major factor influencing waterfowl productivity in the Prairie Pothole Region. Rates of predation of waterfowl nests differ by predator species, so understanding landscape or spatial patterns in predator density are desired by many natural resource managers. Spatial predictions for the occurrence and relative abundance of predators would allow natural resource managers to...