The purpose and objectives of this subgrant are assist with the completion of an adaptive study to collect greater sage-grouse population and movement data; conduct population and movement analyses; and collect, process, and analyze acoustic data. Sage-grouse and acoustic data will be analyzed with available flight data to evaluate greater sage-grouse populations in relation to military overflight noise from withdrawn airspace and land under the FRTC modernization and associated control sites. Recipient will coordinate with the Nevada Department of Wildlife and US Navy to implement the study design “Evaluating Greater Sage-Grouse Populations in Relation to Military Overflight Noise from Fallon Range Training Complex Modernization,” which was produced in partnership with the USGS, USFWS, NDOW, and Western Bioacoustics (hereafter, FRTC Study Design). This project is intended to determine the potential effects of military overflights on Greater sage-grouse within the Region of Influence for the Fallon Range and Training Complex. This will be accomplished by implementing the FRTC Study Design. Research objectives will be carried out in two phases across a minimum 5-year study that includes 1) a desktop analysis and pilot study to gather baseline data, leverage existing information to establish monitoring methodologies, and assess sage-grouse population growth rates under current conditions within the FRTC, followed by; 2) a full field study investigating impacts of military aircraft overflights and subsequent noise on sage-grouse stress metabolites, behavior, and population demographics. Subrecipient will work with the US Navy, USGS, and NDOW to continue work associated with the FRTC Pilot Study. Subrecipient will be responsible for assisting with data management, processing, and analysis associated desktop and field data collected as part of the Final Study Design. Data will include existing flight data, lek count data, video recordings, environmental conditions from remote sensing data, intrinsic population growth rates and rate of change, VHF/GPS data from marked sage-grouse, and acoustic data. Analysis and investigations will be used to identify potential underlying mechanisms of observed patterns and focus additional field data collection. on preliminary connections, if any, to stress, behavioral differences, and effects on population dynamics from military overflights.
