Identifying and mapping essential habitat for fish and freshwater turtles in coastal wetlands of Georgian Bay

确定并绘制乔治亚湾沿海湿地鱼类和淡水龟重要栖息地的地图

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-04860
• 负责人: ChowFraser, Patricia
• 金额: $ 1.53万
• 依托单位: McMaster University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=613212
• 关键词: Identifying; mapping; essential; habitat; fish

Great Lakes coastal marshes support a large number of aquatic and semi-aquatic species that use them for breeding, feeding and overwintering. In eastern Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, where many coastal marshes are still relatively free from human disturbance, the integrity of coastal wetlands has been threatened by an unprecedented period of sustained low water levels for over a decade. Recently, developmental pressure on these coastal wetlands has also increased because of rising demand for water-front property for seasonal and year-round residences. It is clear that development pressure is too strong to prevent alteration of at least some wetlands on public and private lands. A more effective conservation strategy is to identify and protect essential core habitat and connecting corridors, leaving non-essential wetland habitat available for compatible development. Such a system of habitat ranking is more likely to be embraced by politicians and business interests. My long-term goal is to conduct research to enhance the ability of agencies and conservation groups to identify, classify and map the essential wetland habitat along the Georgian Bay coastline. Since habitat is species-specific, I will focus my efforts on two umbrella species, the muskellunge and the Blanding's turtle, both of which are charismatic; protection for them will ensure protection for the less charismatic wetland-dependant species. For the muskellunge, a top predator and largest freshwater sport fish in Canada, both spawning and nursery habitats are found exclusively in coastal marshes. By comparison, both wetland habitats and travel corridors connecting these must be protected to ensure the survival of the Blanding's turtle, which is a semi-aquatic species requiring both upland and coastal wetland habitat for breeding and feeding, as well as sandy beaches for nesting. My first objective is to use existing data from our lab to develop habitat suitability models (HSM) for both species. These models are maps that represent the best chance of finding the target species given the information we have on how species use their habitat for spawning, feeding and overwintering. The HSM for the Blanding's turtles will be specific to islands in the archipelago, whereas that for the muskellunge will apply to both lacustrine and riverine habitats in eastern Georgian Bay. We will randomly choose sites from the 26 quaternary watersheds identified in the McMaster Coastal Wetland Inventory (from French River to Giants Tomb Island) to collect information for both model building and validation. We will apply the HSM to produce a ranked habitat map that will identify essential areas that must be protected to conserve the two umbrella species. We will make sure that these maps are shared with local governments and environmental agencies so that protection for these habitats will be incorporated into official plans of townships in eastern Georgian Bay.

五大湖沿岸沼泽支持大量水生和半水生物种，这些物种利用它们繁殖、觅食和越冬。在格鲁吉亚湾东部的休伦湖，许多沿海湿地仍然相对不受人类干扰，沿海湿地的完整性受到了十多年来前所未有的持续低水位的威胁。最近，由于季节性和全年住宅对海滨物业的需求不断增加，这些沿海湿地的发展压力也在增加。很明显，发展的压力太大，至少在公共和私人土地上的一些湿地无法阻止改变。更有效的保育策略是识别和保护重要的核心生境和连接走廊，让非重要的湿地生境可供相容发展。这样的栖息地排名系统更有可能被政治家和商业利益所接受。