Utah State researcher outlines bioenergetics study of Great Salt Lake wetlands

Lauren Head, a Ph.D. student at Utah State University, told the Great Salt Lake research working group that her team is building a bioenergetics model to estimate food availability for waterbirds in deep wetlands around the lake and to link that to population dynamics.

Head said the project deploys 240 sampling points across six wetland areas — four actively managed impoundments (public shooting grounds, Bear River, Carrington Bay and Farmington Bay) and two unmanaged units (Willard's Bay and the Spur) — and samples each site three times a year to collect water, core and half‑meter drag samples of submerged aquatic vegetation. “So essentially trying to quantify the caloric value of these wetlands for water birds, and then pair these with current population dynamics,” Head said.

The study is intended to support two model types: a standard carrying‑capacity model and an agent‑based movement/risk model. Head reported notable year‑to‑year variability in water depth…