Assessing the Impact of Changing Water Resources on Migratory Bird Health and Management in the Central Flyway

There is a growing movement within natural resource management to view wildlife health as a cumulative outcome of many different factors, rather than simply the absence of disease. This inclusive understanding of health opens the door to management options that are more creative than traditional techniques aimed at preventing or mitigating pathogens. The public health field uses a related concept known as the “health gradient” that suggests that the ease or difficulty with which an individual successfully fends off various health hazards depends on external determinants-of-health, such as income, education, and surrounding community. This perspective facilitates a harm reduction strategy that emphasizes actions meant to reduce the harmful consequences of those determinants. These concepts in human health can also be applied to wildlife health to understand the impact of climatic and environmental conditions on population or species health.



In the South Central U.S., changes in water availability and quality resulting from changing temperature and precipitation patterns can have significant impacts on the health of migratory birds that depend on wildlife refuges as seasonal habitat. This study, in partnership with USFWS National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) across the South Central U.S., will examine how managers define determinants-of-health for migratory birds, assess how those determinants may be impacted by changes in water regimes on refuges, and explore harm reduction strategies to improve the health of migratory birds by managing for water quantity and quality. In doing so, wildlife managers can focus on tangible actions to positively address wildlife health impacts, in the absence of disease, such as physiological stress from temperature changes, changes in reproduction or other life-cycle events, and changes to vital habitat or resources.