DOI: 10.5061/dryad.msbcc2g91
title: Data from: Patterns in lek persistence and attendance by lesser prairie chicken <em>Tympanuchus pallidicinctus</em> near a wind energy facility in southern Kansas

description: As wind energy development expands across the Great Plains, there is
 potential to adversely affect species that require undisturbed tracts of
 native grasslands, such as the lesser prairie-chicken (LEPC) Tympanuchus
 pallidicinctus. Effects of wind development on LEPC movement and
 demographic rates have been minimal when turbines are sited in cultivated
 cropland and grassland habitats are available nearby, but there are gaps
 in the overall understanding of how LEPC populations will respond to wind
 energy development over the long term. Reducing these knowledge gaps and
 improving our decision-making process is key to balancing the needs of the
 wind energy industry and conservation of the species. We evaluated trends
 in LEPC lek attendance and persistence following construction of the
 Cimarron Bend Wind Resource Area (CBWRA) in southern Kansas, USA, from
 2017 to 2024. We used Bayesian generalized linear regression models to
 evaluate lek stability and the probability of lek abandonment with various
 environmental and anthropogenic covariates. We modeled total lek
 attendance with years since facility construction as a predictor. Of the
 37 leks included in analysis, we found leks located in areas with
 relatively higher density of turbines and had lower annual attendance were
 less stable, and leks located in areas with relatively higher grass cover
 were less likely to be abandoned over our eight years of monitoring.
 However, these effects did not seem to negatively impact the local LEPC
 population at CBWRA, given that the total lek attendance had a positive
 trend across the 8-year study, providing additional support that siting
 turbines in cultivated croplands and conserving large intact tracts of
 grasslands appear to be important minimization measures for LEPC.
 Regardless, it remains to be seen how LEPC would be impacted by wind
 energy development in intact grassland-dominated landscapes (i.e. core
 habitat).
description: # Data from: Patterns in lek persistence and attendance by lesser prairie
 chicken *Tympanuchus pallidicinctus* near a wind energy facility in
 southern Kansas Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.msbcc2g91](10.5061/dryad.msbcc2g91) ## Description of the
 data and file structure Lesser Prairie Chicken counts from lek sites
 within range of wind energy facility from 2016-2024. Includes
 environmental covariates used in modelling patterns in lek attendance. ###
 Files and variables #### File: ManuscriptData.xlsx **Description:** 
 metadata - provides a description for each column in the provided data
 LekCountData - Lesser Prairie Chicken yearly count data and associated
 environmental covariates BlinkOutData - Data used to analyze whether lek
 attendance patterns changed from 2017-2020 to 2021-2024 ##### Variables |
 LekName | Unique identifier for each individual lek | | :----------------
 |
 :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Year | Year that the lek was observed | | MaxCount | Max count of all lesser prairie chicken individuals at a lek | | presence | Indicator whether the lek was active by LEPC in a given year | | Ag\_prop\_1045 | Proportion of agricultural landcover within \~1km of the lek | | grass\_1045 | Proportion of grass landcover within \~1km of the lek | | turb\_count\_1000 | Number of turbines within 1km of lek | | turb\_count\_2000 | Number of turbines within 2km of lek | | turb\_count\_5000 | Number of turbines within 5km of lek | | blinkOut | Indicator (0/1) of whether lek attendance decreased (1) or did not decrease (0) from 2017-2020 to 2021-2024 | | MedianCount | Median max count of LEPC at a lek when the lek was active | ## Code/software Mircosoft Excel or open source equivalent