Chapter 4 Conclusion

4.1 Summary: Interpretation

Based on our results, we can see that average temperature is a significant predictor for all outcomes for both tests. This means that we can conclude that temperature is going to affect the amount of birds that will be seen and is going to cause a decrease as the temperature rises. This could be caused by the waterfowl migrating for warmer temperatures but not temperatures that are too high compared to what they are adapted to. Location, based on our results, can also be shown to be significant in the total birds being observed. The waterfowl seemed to migrate more towards the Santa Rosa area since we found a decrease in the total sum in Perdido Key compared to Santa Rosa. Finally, disturbances was only found significant for total bufflehead and total sum within the multiple variable regression tests. There was an 13% increase in the total sum which could have been caused by the increase found for buffleheads. This could signify that buffleheads are not affect by disturbances in the the area and continue to migrate towards an area with high disturbances.

4.2 Suggestion for Further Study

After concluding average temperature and location were both highly significant predictors, there can be further research done to this analysis to further expand the given data. One thing that can be further looked at is the survey date itself. This study looks only at the literal date of the observation, however, further research can expand on the specific months the observations took place to better understand the significance of the survey date. Another area that can be further explored is with the predictor of weather. Average temperature was the only weather data used in this study to test significance with the specific bird counts. Data from NOAA from the specific time the scientists observations took place to provide more accurate temperature instead of the average. Still looking at the weather predictor in this study, both water conditions and wind speed can be added from the data into finding the correlation between weather and bird count. Since both of these variables have a factor on the daily routine of ducks (especially with diving ducks), water conditions and wind speed may be a significant factor when looking at the correlation. Finally, on the more broader spectrum, this research looked at a summary of daily waterfowl activity which means there is always further research into looking more into the daily waterfowl activity directly instead of just a summary.