Priorities for Future Research

Harvest Management

1. Develop statistical models that link annual survival rates, harvest rates, and hunting regulations.

2. Develop improved survey methods for estimation of population abundance.

3. Develop predictive models for annual recruitment as a function of physiographic region, land use, and climate attributes.

4. Integrate information from continuous monitoring programs and specific management objectives into a rigorous, informed decision-making harvest management strategy.

5. Survey public constituencies regarding hunting opportunity, regulation options, and management expectations.

Population Biology

1. Evaluate potential impacts of lead shot toxicosis on population vital rates.

2. Estimate the relative contributions of urban/suburban populations to regional population densities and harvest.

3. Investigate epidemiology of trichomoniasis, avian pox, and other emerging zoonotic diseases.

4. Investigate potential population effects of the range expansion of invasive Eurasian Collared Doves.

5. Estimate winter survival rates to improve understanding of density dependent process on annual survival and recruitment.

6. Evaluate long-term sustainability of local breeding populations in areas of intensive localized harvest effort.

7. Investigate population dynamics of wintering populations in Mexico and Central America.

Life History

1. Explore the relative importance of specific causes of nest failure and of fledgling mortality.

2. Estimate temporal and spatial variation in the number of individual nesting attempts per season and their relationship to variation in recruitment rates.

3. Evaluate cost of migration hypotheses by comparison of life history attributes of migratory and non-migratory populations.