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

五大湖的沿海沼泽地养育着大量的水生和半水生物种，这些物种利用它们进行繁殖、觅食和越冬。在休伦湖的乔治亚湾东部，许多沿海沼泽相对来说仍然没有受到人类的干扰，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，由于对季节性和全年居住的海滨物业的需求不断增加，这些沿海湿地的发展压力也有所增加。显然，发展压力太大，无法阻止改变至少一些公共和私人土地上的湿地。一个更有效的保育策略是找出和保护重要的核心生境和连接走廊，把非重要的湿地生境留给兼容的发展。这样的栖息地排名系统更有可能被政治家和商业利益集团所接受。 我的长期目标是进行研究，以提高机构和保护团体的能力，以确定，分类和地图的基本湿地栖息地沿着格鲁吉亚湾海岸线。由于栖息地是物种特有的，我将把我的努力集中在两个伞物种，麝香龟和布兰丁的海龟，这两个都是魅力;保护他们将确保保护魅力较小的湿地依赖物种。对于muskellunge，顶级捕食者和加拿大最大的淡水运动鱼，产卵和育儿栖息地都只在沿海沼泽地发现。相比之下，必须保护湿地生境和连接这些生境的旅行走廊，以确保布兰丁海龟的生存，布兰丁海龟是一种半水生物种，需要高地和沿海湿地生境进行繁殖和觅食，也需要桑迪筑巢。 我的第一个目标是利用我们实验室的现有数据为这两个物种开发栖息地适宜性模型（HSM）。这些模型是地图，代表了找到目标物种的最佳机会，因为我们知道物种如何利用它们的栖息地进行产卵，觅食和越冬。布兰丁海龟的HSM将具体适用于群岛中的岛屿，而麝香龟的HSM将适用于格鲁吉亚湾东部的湖泊和河流栖息地。我们将从麦克马斯特沿海湿地清单（从法国河到巨人墓岛）中确定的26个第四纪流域中随机选择站点，以收集模型构建和验证的信息。我们将应用HSM制作一个排名栖息地地图，将确定必须保护的重要领域，以保护两个伞物种。我们将确保与地方政府和环境机构共享这些地图，以便将对这些栖息地的保护纳入格鲁吉亚湾东部城镇的官方计划。

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.