Waterbird conservation and ecology : the role of rice field management in habitat restoration / Christopher S. Elphick

Agricultural activities occupy a third of the Earth's ice-free land surface and rice farming is a dominant form of agriculture. Flooded rice fields provide a potential surrogate habitat for wetland species, many of which have declined as wetlands around the world are drained. I studied the potential for flooding California rice fields, during winter, to benefit waterbirds. I found that intentionally flooded fields received significantly greater use by most waterbird species than do fields where only passive flooding was possible. Exceptions included geese, which used both habitats equally, and sandhill cranes, which were rarely seen in flooded fields. Different methods of manipulating rice straw in conjunction with flooding had only minor effects on waterbirds.Water depth was associated significantly with the presence of most species considered, but not with bird densities. During much of the winter, average water depths in flooded fields were greater than those for which waterbird u