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

五大湖沿岸沼泽养育了大量水生和半水生物种，这些物种利用它们进行繁殖、觅食和越冬。在乔治亚湾东部的休伦湖，那里的许多沿海沼泽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时期的威胁。最近，这些滨海湿地的开发压力也有所增加，因为季节性和常年住宅对滨水物业的需求不断上升。显然，开发压力太大，无法阻止公共和私人土地上至少部分湿地的改变。一个更有效的保育策略是确定和保护必要的核心栖息地和连接走廊，留出非必要的湿地栖息地以供兼容发展。这样的栖息地排名系统更有可能被政界人士和商业利益集团所接受。 我的长期目标是进行研究，以提高各机构和保护组织识别、分类和绘制乔治亚湾海岸线沿线重要湿地栖息地的能力。由于栖息地是特定物种的，我将把我的努力集中在两个伞形物种上，麝香和布兰德乌龟，这两个物种都很有魅力；保护它们将确保保护不那么有魅力的湿地依赖型物种。麝香是一种顶级捕食者，也是加拿大最大的淡水运动鱼，产卵和育苗栖息地都只在沿海沼泽中找到。相比之下，湿地栖息地和连接这些栖息地的旅行走廊都必须得到保护，以确保布兰德海龟的生存。海龟是一种半水生物种，需要在高地和沿海湿地栖息地繁殖和觅食，以及在沙滩筑巢。 我的第一个目标是利用我们实验室现有的数据来开发这两个物种的栖息地适宜性模型(HSM)。根据我们掌握的物种如何利用栖息地产卵、取食和越冬的信息，这些模型代表了找到目标物种的最佳机会。布兰德海龟的HSM将特定于群岛中的岛屿，而麝香海龟的HSM将同时适用于乔治亚湾东部的湖泊和河流栖息地。我们将从麦克马斯特海岸湿地清单中确定的26个第四纪分水岭(从法兰西河到巨人墓岛)中随机选择地点，为模型建立和验证收集信息。我们将应用HSM来生成一个排名的栖息地地图，该地图将确定必须保护的基本区域，以保护这两个伞状物种。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乔治亚湾东部城镇的官方规划。

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.