Newswise — Distance matters.

When a pond vanishes, the creatures who live there must find new homes. How far frogs, salamanders and ducks must travel to find other wetlands determines their fate.

A team of South Dakota State University researchers will evaluate the impact that changes in climate and land use have had on the connectivity of wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region through a three-year National Science Foundation grant. The region extends from Canada through the Dakotas into Minnesota and Iowa, supporting more than half of migrating waterfowl in North America.

The $2.1 million NSF grant, distributed among five universities, focuses on balancing wetlands conservation and agricultural production in the Great Plains, including the Playa Lakes Region which extends from Kansas southward through Texas.

Examining big pictureTraditionally researchers looked at how changes at a single site affect organisms, but this type of macrosystems approach will describe the big picture, according to natural resource management professor Carol Johnston, who is part of the SDSU team. Research assistant professor Christopher Wright of the Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence leads the project which also includes co-director Geoffrey Henebry and senior scientist Michael Wimberly.

“This is the first effort to look at wetlands in the context of climate and land-use change on a broad regional scope,” Wimberly said. “The overall issue is fragmentation,” Wright said, pointing out that “wetlands are complicated because climate affects whether or not a wetland is present.”

SDSU scientists will use remote sensing data, including Landsat images, as well as historical aerial photos, to examine how changes have affected wetlands in the Great Plains for nearly 35 years. Texas Tech University provides climate modeling and ornithology expertise, Ohio State University focuses on surface water dynamics, the University of Minnesota-Duluth on amphibians and Kansas State on ecology in the Central Plains.

Targeting model speciesTo evaluate how the connectivity of wetlands will affect inhabitants, three model species have been selected—the pintail duck, the leopard frog and the tiger salamander, according to Johnston. All three exist in the Prairie Pothole and the Playa Lakes regions.

“During wet years, the connectedness of wetlands increases,” she explained, but during dry years, the distances between wetlands increase. Birds, for instance, can fly to the next wetland, she pointed out, “but a frog is just out of luck.”

Johnston and doctoral student Michelle Bouchard will use the breeding bird survey, done annually through the U.S. Geological Survey since 1967, to determine how landscape changes have impacted the duck population.

The scientists will pinpoint key places within the wetlands network that have greater impact on wildlife, Johnston said. In addition, the researchers will make projections regarding wetlands connectivity for the remainder of the century, according to Wright.

“This project will give government agencies and conservation groups a clearer picture of the likely possibilities,” said Wimberly. About the Geospatial Sciences Center of ExcellenceThe Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence (GSCE) is a joint collaboration between South Dakota State University (SDSU) and the United States Geological Survey's National Center for Earth Resources Observation and Sciences (EROS). The purpose of the GSCE is to enable South Dakota State University faculty and students, and EROS scientists to carry out collaborative research, seek professional development, and implement educational programs in the applications of geographic information science.

About South Dakota State UniversityFounded in 1881, South Dakota State University is the state’s Morrill Act land-grant institution as well as its largest, most comprehensive school of higher education. SDSU confers degrees from eight different colleges representing more than 175 majors, minors and specializations. The institution also offers 29 master’s degree programs, 15 Ph.D. and two professional programs.

The work of the university is carried out on a residential campus in Brookings, at sites in Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City, and through Cooperative Extension offices and Agricultural Experiment Station research sites across the state.