Guiding salt marsh restoration through sediment budgets and integrative metrics

USFWS Region 5 Refuges manage approximately 24,000 hectares of coastal wetlands, ecosystems that are undergoing drastic change under accelerating sea-level rise and changing climatic forcing. In response to signs of marsh destabilization, such as widening channels, water logged platforms, accelerating erosion, and internal disintegration, Refuges have invested > $100 million in restoration projects to enhance resiliency. However, more data is needed on the long-term viability of salt marsh units in order to direct limited resources to sites that are likely to persist with sea level rise. Fifteen coastal refuges or refuge complexes in Region 5 participate in Salt Marsh Integrity (SMI) monitoring, to assess ecological...

FY 2017 Northeast Region SSP/QRP Request for Proposals

Methods to improve fishway attraction efficiency and entry rates for American shad (Alosa sapidissima), alewife (A. pseudoharengus), and blueback herring (A. aestivalis)

Numerous species of diadromous fishes within the Northeast and other regions have undergone a large population decline during the past century (Limburg and Waldman, 2009). The factors that led to this decline primarily stem from the damming of rivers, overfishing, and pollution (Limburg and Waldman, 2009; Helfman, 2007). This proposal focuses on mitigating the ecological damage caused by one of the leading factors, the damming of rivers. This problem is so prevalent that approximately 36% of the original spawning habitat for American shad has been lost due to these man-made obstructions (Limburg et al., 2003). These effects also apply to many other anadromous fishes. To address this problem, fishways have been...

Improving and field-testing solar-powered GPS/GSM transmitter design and attachment techniques to increase effectiveness of the technology for tracking marine and coastal birds

New lightweight solar-powered global positioning system (GPS) transmitters have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of animal movement and behavior. With a predicted lifespan of 3-5 years, and the capacity to record frequent locations to within 3 m, these tags provide continuous and precise data that allow for sophisticated analyses that require time-invariant sampling and relocations with low error. Examples of these next-generation techniques include analyses that incorporate barriers to movement, autocorrelation of data, and mechanistic approaches to modeling (Cleasby et al. 2015) that include metrics such as weather, shifting resource availability, and habitat. Such models offer resource managers...

Genetic and landscape level threat assessments and status review of the Candy Darter (Etheostoma osburni)

The Candy Darter, an endemic fish of the New River drainage in VA and WV, has been petitioned as a potential candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act (Barb Douglas, USFWS, Elkins, WV, personal communication). Historically, the Candy Darter occurred over a wide range within the lower New River drainage, but many populations have been extirpated (Daniel A. Cincotta, personal communication). In West Virginia, the species has been extirpated from the lower Greenbrier River system, the Indian Creek drainage, and the Bluestone River drainage. Extant populations are restricted to the upper Greenbrier system and the Gauley river drainage in West Virginia. In Virginia, the species is restricted to the Valley...