Linking avian diversity with farms in the Iowa Corn Belt using remote sensing, collaborative passive acoustic monitoring, and farmer-habitat relationships

dc.contributor.advisorEllis, Erle C.
dc.contributor.authorDixon, Adam Patrick
dc.contributor.departmentGeography and Environmental Systems
dc.contributor.programGeography and Environmental Systems
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-09T15:52:40Z
dc.date.available2022-02-09T15:52:40Z
dc.date.issued2020-01-01
dc.description.abstractAddressing the decline of farmland birds throughout North America requires strategies that can inform and complement land use decisions made by farmers. Reconciliation of agricultural land use with wildlife conservation cannot be addressed without combining social and ecological knowledge, potentially through methods supported by recent theoretical and technological advancements. This dissertations addresses the methodological challenges of systematic avian biodiversity monitoring across an agricultural region by combining high-resolution remote sensing of farmland habitats with low-cost passive acoustic monitoring. Integrating ecological measures of species and habitat with social measures of habitat management creates further challenges if researchers, land managers, and policy makers are to make decisions based on these observations. Strategies to address these challenges are investigated through a social-theory-driven empirical approach examining how farmer identity verification processes influence farmland habitat management. Newforms of high-resolution habitat mapping integrated with new sensors capable of detecting avian diversity within intensive row-crop agricultural farmland show great promise for providing reliable, low-cost, and accurate ecological information. Linking these ecological measurements with farmer's social rationales describing where and how habitats are created within farmland could help to establish farmer-habitat- wildlife relationships in support of conservation efforts in farmlands. Multiple research challenges remain before these new technologies and social theories can be integrated to support multifunctional farm management strategies that support both conservation and production. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and microsatellite constellations have unique cost and methodological trade-offs for habitat mapping in farmland. Passive acoustic monitoring can complement remote sensing platforms by providing measures of avian diversity, but it is unclear how robust these acoustically derived measures are, and to what degree these can be linked with remotely sensed habitat measures. Additionally, great potential exists to collaborate with farmers and landowners in the acoustic data collection process, which can bring down costs and increase observational capacity while also bringing ecological information closer to decision makers. In the conclusion chapter, recommendations are presented for strategies that can enhance the scale, power, and integration of social and ecological measurements in support of biodiversity conservation across the Iowa Corn Belt.
dc.formatapplication:pdf
dc.genredissertations
dc.identifierdoi:10.13016/m2n7l8-oqhb
dc.identifier.other12321
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/24188
dc.languageen
dc.relation.isAvailableAtThe University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Geography and Environmental Systems Department Collection
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Theses and Dissertations Collection
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Graduate School Collection
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Student Collection
dc.sourceOriginal File Name: Dixon_umbc_0434D_12321.pdf
dc.subjectacoustic
dc.subjectagriculture
dc.subjectbirds
dc.subjectconservation
dc.subjectfarmer identity
dc.subjectrural sociology
dc.titleLinking avian diversity with farms in the Iowa Corn Belt using remote sensing, collaborative passive acoustic monitoring, and farmer-habitat relationships
dc.typeText
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