Sergio Pierluissi, M.S. Student
M.S., Spring 2006
I currently serve as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Private Lands Biologist for the state of Ohio. Initially, I secured a SCEP position with the USFWS and later was selected for my current position.
Thesis Title:
Breeding Waterbird Use of Rice Fields in Southwestern Louisiana
Personal Background
I received my Bachelor's in 2002 in Natural Resources and Environmental Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During that time I worked on internships at the Max MacGraw Wildlife Foundation and the Illinois Natural History Survey dealing with marsh birds in northeastern Illinois. I began my Master's work in 2002 at the University of Tennessee working on amphibian colonization of restored wetlands in eastern Arkansas. Unfortunately, that project lost its funding a year into it. In the meantime, I moved to LSU with Dr. King and began work on my thesis, which looked at breeding waterbirds in rice fields in southwestern Louisiana. I completed data collection at the end of summer, 2005. I then began work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Michigan, and received my Master's in May of 2006. I now work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, doing habitat restoration in southwestern Ohio.
Major Research Findings
I found six species of waterbirds breeding in rice fields in southwestern Louisiana: (from most to least abundant) purple gallinules, fulvous whistling-ducks, king rails, common moorhens, least bitterns, and mottled ducks. Nest success was near or above 50% for all species with enough nests to do analyses. Purple gallinule and king rail nests were most abundant in rice fields with a high coverage of ditches around the perimeter, and few trees. Fulvous whistling-duck nests were abundant in similar areas, but with high coverage of soybean fields surrounding rice fields. All species responded more to the land use immediately surrounding rice fields than the land use within 1km of the field edges. Rice fields provide excellent habitat for this suite of waterbirds, some of which are becoming of high conservation concern due to population declines or uncertainties in population trends. However, rice acreage is in jeopardy due to low rice prices, higher input costs, hurricane damage, and the difficulty of farmers in entering foreign markets.