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4. Breeding Distribution And Ecology Of Pacific Coast Surf Scoters

Recent declines in sea duck popula- tions have highlighted the need for additional basic research across the life cycle of these long-distance migratory birds. A lack of basic ecological information on Surf Scoters (Melan- itta perspicillata), including the linkage between wintering and breeding areas and description of their nesting areas, is a major impediment to determining factors contributing to their decline. We marked 415 Surf Scoters with radio and sat- ellite transmitters at four wintering areas along the Pacific coast to describe their breeding syn- chrony, sympatry, philopatry, and nesting areas selection in the northern boreal forest (NBF). Their primary breeding region was located in the western NBF centered on the Great Slave and Great Bear Lakes in the Northwest Ter- ritories, Canada, and their mean settling date (31 May) was remarkably synchronous (0.9 d). We developed a nearest-neighbor statistic C to examine nesting areas of individuals from dif- ferent wintering areas and found that they were not clustered (C 0.031, P 0.15), but nests of eight individuals found in successive years were highly philopatric and within 1.2 0.2 km of their previous locations. Finally, we compared nesting areas and random locations with step- wise selection in a second-order Akaike Infor- mation Criterion (AIC c ) analysis to identify the best models. Key landscape features included distance to snowline, elevation gradient, num- bers of lakes, distance to treeline, and latitude. A nonparametric classification and regression tree (CART) showed that nesting areas were in an arc of habitat near snowline (218 km), in lower elevation gradients (14 m/km), and in areas with 3-6 lakes within 2 2 km. Climate change is predicted to have the greatest effects on more northern ecosystems, and NBF species like Surf Scoters with relatively inflexible breeding ecol- ogy may be adversely affected if they are unable to adapt quickly to rapidly changing conditions.