Piping plovers inhabiting disturbance-dependent environments are more vulnerable to habitat loss and require more habitat than species in stable environments because disturbances and successional…

Rutgers University will conduct a spatially explicit population viability analysis for the piping plover within the New York-New Jersey recovery unit under a $118,066 cooperative agreement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The analysis aims to determine the population size, demographic rates, habitat amounts and configurations necessary for viability and recovery of the subpopulation, including under scenarios of coastal storm impacts and sea level rise. Results will provide targets for achieving recovery unit conservation goals and ensuring a range-wide metapopulation robust against stochastic events despite declining habitat. Funded under the Endangered Species Recovery Implementation program (CFDA 15.657), the analysis from April 2023 through March 2026 will provide actionable science to improve redundancy, resiliency and representation for the greater Atlantic coast piping plover population, in line with the program's purpose.

Piping plovers inhabiting disturbance-dependent environments are more vulnerable to habitat loss and require more habitat than species in stable environments because disturbances and successional processes create constant turnover in habitat. Therefore, piping plovers must be managed as a metapopulation, in which a set number of habitat patches form a reserve. Identifying patches that optimize thresholds for metapopulation viability is required for successful conservation in such systems. Band RE-sightings indicate that the NY-NJ subpopulation offers a bridge between the NE and southern recovery units (RU), and therefore is necessary for maintaining resiliency and redundancy across the range. We propose to conduct a spatially explicit population viability analysis within the NY-NJ RU to determine population size, demographic rates, and habitat amounts and configurations necessary for viability and recovery, including under scenarios of a changing coastal storm regime and sea-level rise. Information derived from this project will provide targets for achieving the RU conservation goals, and for ensuring a range wide metapopulation robust to stochastic events despite declining habitat. Our results will provide actionable science that improves redundancy, resiliency, and representation within the greater atlantic coast piping plover population.