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Nesting strategies and use of important in-water habitats for far-ranging marine turtles can be determined using satellite telemetry. Because of a lack of information on habitat-use by marine turtles in the northern Gulf of Mexico, we used satellite transmitters in 2010 through 2012 to track movements of 39 adult female breeding loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) tagged on nesting beaches at three sites in Florida and Alabama. During the nesting season, recaptured turtles emerged to nest 1 to 5 times, with mean distance between emergences of 27.5 km; however, several turtles nested on beaches separated by ~250 km within a single season. Mean total distances traveled throughout inter-nesting periods for all turtles...
Use of existing marine protected areas (MPAs) by far-ranging marine turtles can be determined using satellite telemetry. Because of a lack of information on MPA use by marine turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, we used satellite transmitters in 2010 and 2011 to track movements of 11 adult female breeding green turtles (Chelonia mydas) tagged in Dry Tortugas National Park (DRTO), in the Gulf of Mexico, south Florida, USA. Throughout the study period, turtles emerged every 9–18 days to nest. During the intervals between nesting episodes (i.e., inter-nesting periods), the turtles consistently used a common core-area within the DRTO boundary, determined using individual 50% kernel-density estimates (KDEs). We mapped the...
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Winter climate change has the potential to have a large impact on coastal wetlands in the southeastern U.S. Warmer winter temperatures and reductions in the intensity of freeze events would likely lead to mangrove forest range expansion and salt marsh displacement in parts of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coast. The objective of this research was to better understand some of the ecological implications of mangrove forest migration and salt marsh displacement. The potential ecological effects of mangrove migration are diverse ranging from important biotic impacts (e.g., coastal fisheries, land bird migration; colonial nesting wading birds) to ecosystem stability (e.g., response to sea level rise and drought;...
Species loss can result in the subsequent loss of affiliate species. Though largely ignored to date, these coextinctions can pose threats to human health by altering the composition, quantity and distribution of zoonotic parasites. We simulated host extinctions from more than 1300 host–parasite associations for 29 North American carnivores to investigate changes in parasite composition and species richness. We also explored the geography of zoonotic parasite richness under three carnivore composition scenarios and examined corresponding levels of human exposure. We found that changes in parasite assemblages differed among parasite groups. Because viruses tend to be generalists, the proportion of parasites that are...
Streamflow is essential for maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems and for supporting human water supply needs. Changes in climate, land use and water use practices may alter water availability. Understanding the potential effect of these changes on aquatic ecosystems is critical for long-term water management to maintain a balance between water for human consumption and ecosystem needs. Fish species data and streamflow estimates from a rainfall-runoff and flow routing model were used to develop boosted regression tree models to predict the relationship between streamflow and fish species richness (FSR) under plausible scenarios of (1) water withdrawal, (2) climate change and (3) increases in impervious surfaces...
The goal of barrier island restoration in the northern Gulf of Mexico is to restore barrier island morphology using sediment to support the functions and habitats the islands provide. Barrier island restoration typically involves placement of sediment either directly on the island footprint or within the littoral zone for system transport and distribution. The re-engineering of barrier islands presents numerous challenges and uncertainties associated with climate change induced hurricanes/storms and other dynamic components of the system such as sediment availability and erosional trends. The goal of this study was to use a collaborative SDM approach to develop two Bayesian decision network models (DMs) for restoration...
Abstract (from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11252-014-0406-8): Urbanization is thought to lead to the loss of biodiversity both because of habitat disturbance and the increased abundance of invasive species. However, most studies of biodiversity in cities are conducted on a short time scale, usually less than 3 years, and so miss the long-term dynamics of communities inhabiting these ecosystems. Here we use a study performed in the early 70’s on North Carolina State University (Raleigh, USA) as a baseline to evaluate the long term effects of disturbance and introduced species on native ant communities. Ant species were sampled almost 40 years later using a variety of sampling techniques in order to...
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Stream flows are essential for maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems and for supporting human water supply needs. Integrated modeling approaches assessing the impact of changes in climate, land use, and water withdrawals on stream flows and the subsequent impact of changes in flow regime on aquatic biota at multiple spatial scales are necessary to insure an adequate supply of water for humans and healthy river ecosystems. This spreadsheet contains an inventory of existing hydrologic models in the Southeast region and Puerto Rico. Data were compiled by contacting federal and state agencies, members of academia, and environmental consultants.
Managing ecosystems for resilience and sustainability requires understanding how they will respond to future anthropogenic drivers such as climate change and urbanization. In fire-dependent ecosystems, predicting this response requires a focus on how these drivers will impact fire regimes. Here, we use scenarios of climate change, urbanization and management to simulate the future dynamics of the critically endangered and fire-dependent longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystem. We investigated how climate change and urbanization will affect the ecosystem, and whether the two conservation goals of a 135% increase in total longleaf area and a doubling of fire-maintained open-canopy habitat can be achieved in the...
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Recreational birding is a popular activity in the United States. To assess the spatial distribution of recreational birding in the southeast, we combined two data sources: eBird (Sullivan et al. 2009) and the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-associated Recreation (NSFHWAR; US Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Department of Commerce 2011). We used spatial birding data from eBird to distribute the state-level NSFHWAR birding data by county and land protection status. This information was used to identify priority counties for conservation of birding areas. These are counties with a high level of birding activity where at least 90% of birding activity takes place on unprotected...
Coastal wetlands provide many valuable benefits to people and wildlife, including critical habitat, improved water quality, reduced flooding impacts, and protected coastlines. However, in the 21st century, accelerated sea-level rise and coastal development are expected to greatly alter coastal landscapes across the globe. The future of coastal wetlands is uncertain, challenging coastal environmental managers to develop conservation strategies that will increase the resilience of these valuable ecosystems to change and preserve the benefits they provide. One strategy for preparing for the effects of sea-level rise is to ensure that there is space available for coastal wetlands to migrate inland. In a recent study,...
Many shorebirds and nearshore waterbirds are of conservation concern across the Gulf of Mexico due to stressors such as human disturbance, predation, and habitat loss and degradation. Conservation and protection of these birds is important for the functioning of healthy ecosystems and for maintaining biodiversity in North America. Consequently, resource managers along the Gulf need decision-aiding tools that can help to answer important conservation questions for different species (e.g., how much area should be targeted by management actions to meet a species’ needs). To address this need, project researchers developed statistical models that could help identify habitat conservation objectives and actions for bird...
Abstract (from USGS): Adapting cultural resources to climate-change effects challenges traditional cultural resource decision making because some adaptation strategies can negatively affect the integrity of cultural resources. Yet, the inevitability of climate-change effects—even given the uncertain timing of those effects—necessitates that managers begin prioritizing resources for climate-change adaptation. Prioritization imposes an additional management challenge: managers must make difficult tradeoffs to achieve desired management outcomes related to maximizing the resource values. This report provides an overview of a pilot effort to integrate vulnerability (exposure and sensitivity), significance, and use potential...
Abstract (from ScienceDirect): Natural resource plans play a critical role in guiding the sustainable management of forest ecosystems. However, little is known about the quality of management plans. In this study, we evaluated and compared the quality of 35 management plans from federal, state, and nongovernment groups managing longleaf pine ecosystems in the Southeast United States. We developed a plan evaluation tool consisted of five components: (1) Problem and Objective Statement, (2) Fact Base, (3) Actions and Implementation, (4) Integration with Other Plans, and (5) Stakeholder Participation, to examine to what extent plans incorporated planning best practices. We tested a hypothetical model for understanding...
Detecting change in ecosystems requires observations of living and non-living components over time. Many different organizations make observations that are relevant to understanding global change processes, but the data are often not easily discoverable by other interested scientists and managers. This project pulls into a centralized location information about many of these observational networks. This phase of the project enhanced a pilot publicly available web-based portal that provides a means to discover, search, and connect to many types of environmental and biological data collected in the southeastern United States that are relevant to characterizing potential effects of climate and land use change on land,...
Under the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program (MsCIP), the US Army Corps of Engineers will place up to 22 million cubic yards (MCY) of sand to restore the physical integrity of Ship Island. In this project, structured decision making (SDM) was utilized to provide a formal process for analyzing decisions about repairing storm-related damages that may arise during island construction to maximize post-construction sustainability of the restoration effort. Decision support tools were developed to link restoration objectives and management options while accounting for tradeoffs between objectives and uncertainties such as storm events during and after construction. Expert elicitations, predictive models, and quantitative...
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Electronic Supplementary Material ESM Table S1. Calcification rates for the reef coral Siderastrea siderea and crustose coralline algae (CCA) communities at four sites in the Florida Keys, U.S.A, from May 2010 until May 2012. Sample size ( N), mean, and standard error (SEM) are reported. Site Time interval Coral calcification (mg cm-2 d-1) CCA calcification (mg cm-2 d-1) N Mean SEM N Mean SEM Pulaski Shoal N 24° 41.613’ W 82° 46.368’ Summer 2010 10 4.12 0.33 10 0.132 6.8E-03 Winter 2011 10 2.75 0.28 10 0.080 5.0E-03 Summer 2011 9 4.50 0.43 9 0.076 4.5E-03 Winter 2012 9 2.85 0.48 9 0.082 5.8E-03 Sombrero Key N 24° 37.612’ W 81° 06.536’ Summer 2010 10 2.67 0.22 9 0.229 0.018 Winter 2011...
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Coastal ecosystems are uniquely vulnerable to changes in the quantity and quality of freshwater discharge. With a warming climate, changes in freshwater discharge into estuaries will interact with rising sea levels. Coastal natural resource managers need guidance on the potential impacts and vulnerabilities to better manage the risks to aquatic species and habitats and to mitigate species decline or collapse resulting from changes in freshwater availability. This project will inform resource managers on the development of management plans that protect coastal ecosystems and species while accounting for changes in freshwater availability under climate uncertainty. To achieve this, the proposed project has three objectives....
map background search result map search result map Calcification rates for the reef coral/electronic supplementary table Field Notes - Scanned Field Data Sheets and Field Notebook Pages for the following project - Ecological implications of mangrove forest migration in the southeastern US (2012-2013) Southeast modeling efforts for flow and ecology Conservation Priorities for Recreational Birding in the Southeast United States, by County (2011) Future of Aquatic Flows: Exploring Changes in the Freshwater/Saltwater Interface and Related Impacts to Aquatic Species Calcification rates for the reef coral/electronic supplementary table Field Notes - Scanned Field Data Sheets and Field Notebook Pages for the following project - Ecological implications of mangrove forest migration in the southeastern US (2012-2013) Conservation Priorities for Recreational Birding in the Southeast United States, by County (2011) Southeast modeling efforts for flow and ecology Future of Aquatic Flows: Exploring Changes in the Freshwater/Saltwater Interface and Related Impacts to Aquatic Species