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Bird communities as a tool for assessing restoration effectiveness
Citation:
Corra, J., I. Dunn, T. Hollenhorst, M. Kravitz, J. Lazorchak, M. Mills, Tamara Newcomer Johnson, AND M. O'Brien. Bird communities as a tool for assessing restoration effectiveness. Great Lakes Areas of Concern Conference 2023, https://www.uwgb.edu/great-lakes-area, Green Bay, WI, September 13 - 14, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
Birds frequently serve as faunal remediation and restoration effectiveness indicators. In riparian settings, birds are trophically linked to water via aquatic prey consumption, thereby integrating riparian and aquatic ecosystems. There are 14 Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs) listed as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and Great Lakes Legacy Act (GLLA). Four of them, Degraded Fish and Wildlife Populations, Bird or Animal Deformities or Reproductive Problems, Loss of Fish, Wildlife Habitat and Degradation of Benthos are related to bird health and assemblages.
Description:
Birds frequently serve as faunal indicators of remediation and restoration effectiveness. In riparian settings, birds are trophically linked to water via consumption of aquatic prey and thereby integrate riparian and aquatic ecosystems. There are 14 Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs) listed as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and Great Lakes Legacy Act (GLLA). Four of them, Degraded Fish and Wildlife Populations, Bird or Animal Deformities or Reproductive Problems, Loss of Fish, Wildlife Habitat and Degradation of Benthos are related to bird health and assemblages. Avian monitoring is recognized as an effective and practical tool for aquatic-riparian restoration and remediation assessment because bird communities are notably sensitive to ecological change in riparian areas. Emerging technologies are accelerating the collection and sharing of bird assemblage data, underscoring the need to understand the potential applications of this data to restoration and remediation. To that end, we have identified published studies that related bird community response to remediation and restoration in aquatic-riparian settings and organized the results according to the BUIs that could be evaluated using similar data. We also noted studies that applied new emerging technologies to accelerate the collection and sharing of bird assemblage data. We anticipate that a comprehensive review of such studies will prove valuable in efforts to assess restoration and remediation in the Great Lakes Areas of Concern.
