{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/124383"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/124383","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Habitat associations and abundance of Eastern Black Rails (Laterallus jamaicensis jamaicensis) in southeastern Colorado","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2024-09-16 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2024-09-16 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Hargett, Eleonora Murphy"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Natural Res & Env Sciences","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Fournier, Auriel","Benson, Thomas J","Rossi, Liza","Matthews, Jeffrey"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-05","date_published":"2024-05","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:00Z","subjects":["Marsh Birds","Black Rails","Population Estimation","Habitat","Species Conservation","Colorado"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2024 Eleonora Hargett"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124383","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Fournier, Auriel","Benson, Thomas J","Rossi, Liza","Matthews, Jeffrey"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Hargett, Eleonora Murphy"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2024-05","2024-04-30"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Natural Res & Env Sciences"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Marsh Birds","Black Rails","Population Estimation","Habitat","Species Conservation","Colorado"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2024 Eleonora Hargett"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124383"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2024-09-16 without embargo terms","The student, Eleonora Hargett, accepted the attached license on 2024-04-23 at 15:17.","The student, Eleonora Hargett, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2024-04-23 at 15:32.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2024-04-30 at 16:07.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #20587 on 2024-09-16 at 00:36:02","The Eastern Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis jamaicensis), a federally threatened subspecies, is cryptic and difficult to study. Their elusive nature makes population monitoring challenging and for many years they have gone understudied. Once observed across the eastern United States, they currently occupy only a few interior regions and are largely limited to coastal marshes. Southeastern Colorado is one of the most prominent interior regions still occupied by Eastern Black Rails. Here, Eastern Black Rails are relatively common, but we have a limited understanding of Eastern Black Rail habitat needs and population status. We used broadcast surveys conducted in 2022 and 2023 to better understand habitat patterns associated with Eastern Black Rail presence. We found Eastern Black Rail presence is associated with areas of higher marsh coverage, tall and dense vegetation, and in dry years, moist soil. We found locations outside of the core occupied habitat had similar vegetative characteristics, but less marsh habitat as compared to the core occupied habitat. These results indicate Eastern Black Rails may be limited by marsh coverage instead of vegetative characteristics. We also used broadcast surveys conducted in 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023 to estimate the abundance of Eastern Black Rails along the Arkansas River. We found detection increased later in the season and later at night but decreased with noise. We found occupancy increased with residual vegetation height and Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola) presence. We found abundance increased with live emergent vegetation height and marsh coverage but decreased with distance to a large marsh. We estimated 128–179 Eastern Black Rails at our surveyed locations along the Arkansas River. These results indicate southeastern Colorado is hosting a substantial portion of the larger Eastern Black Rail population and management actions in Colorado are necessary to avoid population declines that have been observed across the range. The results of this work will inform future monitoring efforts and will allow for an improved understanding of management priorities for Eastern Black Rails in southeastern Colorado."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Habitat associations and abundance of Eastern Black Rails (Laterallus jamaicensis jamaicensis) in southeastern Colorado"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Fournier, Auriel","Benson, Thomas J","Rossi, Liza","Matthews, Jeffrey"],"dc:creator":["Hargett, Eleonora Murphy"],"dc:date":["2024-05","2024-04-30"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2024-09-16 without embargo terms","The student, Eleonora Hargett, accepted the attached license on 2024-04-23 at 15:17.","The student, Eleonora Hargett, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2024-04-23 at 15:32.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2024-04-30 at 16:07.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #20587 on 2024-09-16 at 00:36:02","The Eastern Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis jamaicensis), a federally threatened subspecies, is cryptic and difficult to study. Their elusive nature makes population monitoring challenging and for many years they have gone understudied. Once observed across the eastern United States, they currently occupy only a few interior regions and are largely limited to coastal marshes. Southeastern Colorado is one of the most prominent interior regions still occupied by Eastern Black Rails. Here, Eastern Black Rails are relatively common, but we have a limited understanding of Eastern Black Rail habitat needs and population status. We used broadcast surveys conducted in 2022 and 2023 to better understand habitat patterns associated with Eastern Black Rail presence. We found Eastern Black Rail presence is associated with areas of higher marsh coverage, tall and dense vegetation, and in dry years, moist soil. We found locations outside of the core occupied habitat had similar vegetative characteristics, but less marsh habitat as compared to the core occupied habitat. These results indicate Eastern Black Rails may be limited by marsh coverage instead of vegetative characteristics. We also used broadcast surveys conducted in 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023 to estimate the abundance of Eastern Black Rails along the Arkansas River. We found detection increased later in the season and later at night but decreased with noise. We found occupancy increased with residual vegetation height and Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola) presence. We found abundance increased with live emergent vegetation height and marsh coverage but decreased with distance to a large marsh. We estimated 128–179 Eastern Black Rails at our surveyed locations along the Arkansas River. These results indicate southeastern Colorado is hosting a substantial portion of the larger Eastern Black Rail population and management actions in Colorado are necessary to avoid population declines that have been observed across the range. The results of this work will inform future monitoring efforts and will allow for an improved understanding of management priorities for Eastern Black Rails in southeastern Colorado."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124383"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2024 Eleonora Hargett"],"dc:subject":["Marsh Birds","Black Rails","Population Estimation","Habitat","Species Conservation","Colorado"],"dc:title":["Habitat associations and abundance of Eastern Black Rails (Laterallus jamaicensis jamaicensis) in southeastern Colorado"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Natural Res & Env Sciences"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:00Z"}