Wetlands and Waterfowl in Prairie Pothole Region of North America are "Highly Vulnerable to Climate Warming," Researchers Say

Researchers report in the February 2010 issue of  BioScience that wetlands will dry faster each year under the warmer and drier climate projected for the prairie potholes region of North America. The 800,000-square kilometer region includes portions of North and South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa and extends into Canada. In a press release issued by the U.S. Geological Survey on 1 Feb 2010 (Disappearing Ducks? North America’s Prairie Potholes Vulnerable to Warming Climates), Dr. Glenn Guntenspergen, a U.S. Geological Survey researcher and co-author of the report said:

“The impact to the millions of wetlands that attract countless ducks to these breeding grounds in spring makes it difficult to imagine how to maintain today’s level of waterfowl populations in altered climate conditions.  Parents may not have time to raise their young to where they can fly because of wetlands drying up too quickly in the warming climate of the future.” 

The article, Prairie wetland complexes as landscape functional units in a changing climate, was written by researchers with South Dakota State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Montana, St. Olaf College, The Desert Research Institute-University of Nevada, and the University of Idaho. 

“Unfortunately, the model simulations show that under forecasted climate-change scenarios for this region (an increase of 4-degrees Celsius), the western prairie potholes will be too dry and the eastern ones will have too few functional wetlands and nesting habitat to support historical levels of waterfowl and other wetland-dependent species,” said another of the article's coauthors, Dr. W. Carter Johnson of South Dakota State University.

“Our results indicate that the prairie wetlands are highly vulnerable to climate warming, and are less resilient than we previously believed,” adds Guntenspergen. “All but the very wettest of the historic boom years for waterfowl production in the more arid parts of the prairie pothole region may be bust years in a 4-degrees Celsius warmer climate.”

Online Resources:

• Prairie wetland complexes as landscape functional units in a changing climate.  Published in BioScience, 60[2]:128-140 (February 2010).
• Disappearing Ducks? North America’s Prairie Potholes Vulnerable to Warming Climates.  Press release (1 February 2010) from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with the University of Idaho, South Dakota State University, University of Montana.
• Climate change impacts in U.S. Great Plains regions
• Northern Great Plains.  Additional information from WWF on the region.