Black Duck Outcome:Factors Influencing Progress
Several factors could impact our ability to restore, enhance and preserve wetland habitat to support a wintering population of 100,000 black ducks. These factors have directly informed the management actions our partners will take to achieve the Black Duck outcome.
Ecosystem Factors
- Habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation within the Chesapeake Bay watershed
- Habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation at other ends of the Atlantic Flyway population’s range
- Food availability (which is affected by competition and proximity to developed or otherwise disturbed lands)
- Shoreline disturbance (e.g., due to dredging or development)
- Pressure from invasive species
- Pressure from climate change (including sea level rise, floods, salinity changes and salt marsh migration, large storms and shifts in migration patterns or wintering range)