| No evaluations of plant and wildlife communities in Wetlands Reserve Program wetlands have been conducted in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Therefore, I evaluated active and passive moist-soil management (MTYPE) and early and late draw-down on plant communities, waterbird use, and water quality on 18 WRP lands, Mississippi, 2007-2009. Active-early sites had greater waterfowl Vegetative Forage Quality (VFQI), percentage occurrence of grass, plant diversity, and structural composition than passively managed sites (P < 0.10). I modeled variation in densities of wintering waterbirds; the best model included VFQI*MTYPE and decreased % woody vegetation ( wi ≥ 0.79). Additionally, waterbird densities varied positively with active-late management (R2 ≤ 0.27), as did duck species richness with flooded area (R 2 = 0.66). I compared water quality parameters among managed wetlands and drainage ditches but did not detect differences due to variability. Therefore, wetland restoration on WRP lands should focus on active management and maximizing wetland area. |
