Populations of marsh‐breeding birds have declined throughout the southern Laurentian Great Lakes basin. To advance conservation of these species, we used occupancy modeling, a regional prioritization scheme, and data from Birds Canada's Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring Program (2016–2018) to describe species‐habitat relationships and identify priority habitat areas for 7 obligate marsh‐breeding bird species in southern Ontario, Canada: American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), common gallinule (Gallinula galeata), least bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), marsh wren (Cistothorus palustris), pied‐billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps), sora (Porzana carolina), and Virginia rail (Rallus limicola). Given these species respond to land cover at widely varying spatial scales, we initially identified the most informative scale (buffer = 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m, 1,600 m, 3,200 m, or 6,400 m) for marsh, urban, agricultural, and forest cover to increase model performance. We also considered climate variables, whether sample sites were along a Great Lakes coastline or inland, and covariates influencing detection. Occupancy was best explained by land cover at a wide range of spatial scales depending on the species. All species except Virginia rail responded positively to marsh cover; American bittern and Virginia rail responded negatively to urban cover; least bittern, pied‐billed grebe, and Virginia rail responded negatively and sora responded positively to agricultural cover; and American bittern, common gallinule, marsh wren, and pied‐billed grebe responded negatively and Virginia rail responded positively to forest cover. Only American bittern responded negatively to mean May–June temperature; only pied‐billed grebe responded positively to start of growing season; and only Virginia rail had higher occupancy at inland marshes compared to coastal. We combined predictions from the best model for each of 5 species with reasonably good model fit (we excluded sora and Virginia rail) to identify priority habitat areas for marsh‐breeding birds. Expansion of wetland conservation work from existing priority areas based on waterfowl to also include these new additional priority areas based on marsh‐breeding birds will be an important step towards conservation of all birds, and will help slow or maybe even reverse declining population trends. Some restoration activities outside but adjacent to priority areas will also be important for rebuilding marshes for these species across this intensively farmed and developed region. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

中文翻译：

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安大略省沼泽繁殖鸟类的物种栖息地关系和优先区域

在整个劳伦式大湖流域南部，沼泽繁殖鸟类的数量有所减少。为了促进这些物种的保护，我们使用了居住模型，区域优先排序方案以及加拿大鸟类大湖沼泽监测计划（2016-2018）的数据来描述物种与栖息地的关系，并确定了7只专性沼泽繁殖鸟类的优先栖息地区域。在安大略省南部，加拿大品种：美国盐卤（Botaurus lentiginosus），共同gallinule（黑水鸡加莱阿塔），至少盐卤（Ixobrychus蕨），沼泽鹪鹩（Cistothorus沼泽），皮耶嘴鸊鷉（Podilymbus䴙䴘属），空（Porzana卡罗莱纳州）和弗吉尼亚铁路（柳all）。鉴于这些物种在广泛变化的空间尺度上对土地覆盖的响应，我们最初确定了沼泽，城市，森林，森林和沿海地区信息最丰富的尺度（缓冲区= 100 m，200 m，400 m，800 m，1,600 m，3,200 m或6,400 m）。农业和森林覆盖以提高模型性能。我们还考虑了气候变量，无论采样点是沿着大湖沿岸还是内陆，以及影响检测的协变量。最好的解释是根据物种在广泛的空间范围内进行土地覆盖。除弗吉尼亚铁路外，所有其他物种对沼泽地带的反应都积极；美国卤水和弗吉尼亚铁路对城市掩护反应不佳。最少的苦味，带齿的格里布河和弗吉尼亚铁路对农业覆盖率的反应是负面的，索拉对农业覆盖物的反应是正面的；和美国的卤水，普通的鸡in，沼泽w 帐单的格里布（Grebe）做出了负面反应，弗吉尼亚铁路公司（Virginia rail）对森林覆盖率做出了正面反应。只有美国卤水对5月至6月的平均温度有负面反应。只有花斑的格里布对生长季节的开始有积极的反应。与沿海地区相比，只有弗吉尼亚铁路在内陆沼泽地区的占用率更高。我们将对5个物种的最佳模型的预测与合理的模型拟合（我们不包括sora和Virginia rail）相结合，以确定沼泽繁殖鸟类的优先栖息地。将湿地保护工作从基于水禽的现有优先领域扩大到包括基于沼泽繁殖鸟类的这些新的其他优先领域，将是保护所有鸟类的重要一步，并将有助于减缓甚至扭转人口下降的趋势。在优先区域外但邻近优先区域的一些恢复活动对于在这个集约化农业和发达地区重建这些物种的沼泽也很重要。©2020野生动物协会。