The Centre for Wildlife Ecology has several studies underway that address conservation issues affecting sea ducks along the Pacific coast. The issues, species, and populations being studied are shared concerns of the Centre for Wildlife Ecology, the Canadian Wildlife Service, and agency and academic collaborators throughout North America.
Sea duck Bibliography as compiled by Dan Esler
Intraspecific and interspecific brood parasitism occur frequently in waterfowl. We examine the consequences of these behaviors to the population dynamics of Barrow's and Common Goldeneyes during a 10 year study period in central British Columbia. The frequency of parasitism was significantly related to population density and to the availability of nest sites. High levels of parasitism, in turn, resulted in reduced reproductive success of females.
Intertidal community ecology is an extremely well developed field. However, sea ducks are frequently neglected in intertidal community studies, because they are viewed as transient or not sufficiently numerous to have an effect. This may be a mistake, because recent work with other aquatic birds indicates that they can be very important in structuring communities. We examined the importance of Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima) as predators in an intertidal invertebrate community in Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, Canada.