The dynamics of landscape change and snow geese in mid-continent North America

The Mid-Continent Population of the lesser snow goose, which breeds in the eastern and central Canadian Arctic and sub-Arctic, and winters in the southern United States and northern Mexico has increased 5-7% annually from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s, largely because of increased survival in response to an agricultural food subsidy. The rise in numbers complements the increased use of nitrogen fertilizers and a corresponding rise in yields of rice, corn, and wheat along the flyways and on the wintering grounds. In sub-Arctic migration areas and at Arctic breeding colonies, foraging by high numbers of birds has led to loss of coastal vegetation, adverse changes in soil properties and the establishment of an alternative stable state of exposed sediment, which can be detected with LANDSAT imagery. At a local scale, gosling growth, size and survival decreased in affected areas and other taxa have been adversely affected. The food subsidy on wintering and migration areas appears insufficient to meet reproductive demands as foraging in spring continues to occur on southern Hudson Bay staging and nesting areas. The recent introduction of liberal hunting regulations may reduce population size in the near term, but the revegetation of these coastal ecosystems will take decades to achieve. The present pattern of vegetation loss in these Arctic coastal systems is likely to continue in the forseeable future.