Citation:

Kreakie, B., K. Winiarski, AND R. Mckinney. Developing a wintering waterfowl community baseline for environmental monitoring of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. F1000 Research. Faculty of 1000, London, Uk, 4(40):1-15, (2015).

Impact/Purpose:

This manuscript explores winter waterfowl survey data gathered from 2004 to 2011 in order to establish a baseline understanding of the Narragansett Bay’s waterfowl communities and to establish a statistical framework for future environmental monitoring. We were able to formalize the spatial structure of waterfowl communities in Narragansett Bay. Also, we illustrated how our methods might be used elsewhere for environmental monitor. This paper has an intended audience of waterfowl ecologists and land managers, who may be interested in environmental monitoring methods.

Description:

In 2004, the Atlantic Ecology Division of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development began an annual winter waterfowl survey of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. Herein, we explore the survey data gathered from 2004 to 2011 in order to establish a baseline understanding of the Narragansett Bay’s waterfowl communities and to establish a statistical framework for future environmental monitoring. Abundance and diversity of Narragansett Bay’s wintering waterfowl were relatively stable during the initial years of this survey, except in 2010 when there was a large spike in abundance and a reciprocal fall in diversity. There was no significant change in ranked abundance of most waterfowl species; with only Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) and Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucllatus) showing a slight upward trend during the course of our survey period. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was used to examine the community structure of wintering waterfowl in Narragansett Bay. The results of the NMDS indicate that there is a spatial structure to the waterfowl communities of Narragansett Bay and this structure has remained relatively stable since the survey began. Our NMDS analysis helped to solidify what is known anecdotally about Narragansett Bay’s waterfowl ecology, and provides a formalized baseline for long-term monitoring of Narragansett Bay’s waterfowl communities. Birds, including waterfowl, are preferred bioindicators and we propose using our multivariate approach to monitor the future health of Narragansett Bay and beyond.

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