Assessing the Vulnerability of Coastal Marsh Birds to Sea Level Rise in the South Atlantic Coast

• Main Author: Roach, Nicolette
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Clemson University Libraries 2015
• Subjects: black rail; clapper rail; conservation; impoundments; model transferability; occupancy; Biology; Bear Island
• Online Access: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/2154; https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3157&context=all_theses

Global wetland degradation and loss is occurring at a rapid rate, and in the United States over 50% of wetlands in the lower 48 states have been altered since European settlement. In some cases, wetlands that were historically transformed for agriculture are now managed as wetland habitat. We conducted occupancy surveys for black rails (Latterallus jamaicensis) in managed and unmanaged areas of coastal South Carolina. We modeled landscape and local factors potentially influencing occupancy and we assessed whether these habitat associations indicated vulnerability following expected alterations from sea level rise. Black rails occupied 17 of 344 sites surveyed. Landscape factors had the strongest influence on black rail occupancy. Occupancy was significantly associated with impounded marshes, increasing distance to forest, and greater proportion of marsh landscape within a 200 m buffer. We mapped parameters from our top-ranked model to predict the amount of current and future suitable habitat under various sea level rise scenarios at Bear Island Wildlife Management Area, a black rail hotspot. Suitable habitat decreases in tidal marshes but increases in impounded areas. The current use of impoundments by black rails could represent a new management strategy for mitigating the loss of black rail habitat. However, assessing vulnerability is often difficult because predictions made in space or time may not always hold up. Therefore we evaluated how well species-habitat models derived in one locale would transfer to another in an effort to promote effective species-habitat conservation across a region (between states). Species distribution models have been applied across a wide range of spatial scales to generate information for conservation planning. But the generality of these models has rarely been tested. When transferability of models is evaluated it is typically done using occurrence data. However, we assess model transferability in coastal tidal marshes of the Southeastern United States using point counts of a ...