An assessment of the environmental impact of drought on waterfowl in agro-Manitoba and recommendations for mitigation measures / Ben Semchuk

Drought is a recurring climatic phenomenon of the northern Great Plains which include most of Agro-Manitoba. Historical and archeological evidence indicates that cyclical dry periods have been occurring since ancient times and will continue into the future. Droughts generally have an adverse impact on wildlife and wildlife habitat. In the case of waterfowl, cyclical droughts have both positive and negative environmental impacts. Prairie dry cycles have the effect of rejuvenating wetlands and improving them as waterfowl habitat. Waterfowl have developed an equilibrium with alternating wet and dry prairie cycles, after thousands of years of evolution. Stable waters in the northern latitudes provide a place for resident and drought-displaced waterfowl to await the return of wet conditions on the prairies.Waterfowl can explosively reproduce their numbers on the fertile prairies during a wet cycle. On the negative side, droughts cause the decline of the continental populations of waterfow