Transcript A 5-year grant awarded through the Wisconsin Focus on

BIODIVERSITY IN SELECTED
NATURAL COMMUNITIES
RELATED TO GLOBAL
CLIMATE CHANGE
Funding & Participants
• A 5-year grant awarded through the
Wisconsin Focus on Energy program
• Natural Heritage Inventory and the
Ecosystem Inventory and Monitoring
sections
“This presentation is the property of the State
of Wisconsin, Department of Administration,
Division of Energy, and was funded through
the WISCONSIN FOCUS ON ENERGY
Program.”
Project goals
• Provide baseline data on presence, abundance,
and distribution of selected taxon groups
associated with peatlands
• Document selected biotic and abiotic variables
that could influence the organisms being studied
• Determine status of selected peatland obligate
animals and plants
• Replicable such that it can be repeated in 10-20
years
Why Peatlands?
pH
very acidic
acidic
Canopy Cover
poor
fen
circumneutral
shore
fen
neutral to alkaline
boreal
rich fen
alkaline
calcareous
fen
open
bog
muskeg
n. wet forest
black spruce - tamarack
s. tamarack
swamp
n. hardwood
swamp
n. wet-mesic forest
(cedar swamp)
Species groups
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
All small mammals
Breeding passerine birds
Selected terrestrial & aquatic invertebrates
All amphibians
Rare vascular plants
Selected rare birds (e.g., yellow rails)
Selected rare herps (e.g.,northern ribbon
snakes)
• Bryophytes at several sites
Inventory Intensity
Intensive site surveys provide:
– Both a volume of data and repetition over time
– A “normal” range of variation; for example,
there was little precipitation for much of the
2005 field season
– Wide taxonomic resolution through a
combination of intensive and extensive
surveys
Intensive Site
Selection Criteria
Ecological Sections
in Wisconsin
atail
C
Counties
Ecologic al sections
Green B ay-Manitowoc Upland Section
Lak e Michigan Section
Lak e Superior S ec tion
Minnesota and Northeas t Iowa Morainal Sec tion
Nor th Central U.S . Driftles s and Escar pm ent S ection
Nor th Central W isc ons in Uplands Section
Nor thern G reat Lakes Section
Nor thern Highland Section
Southern S uperior Uplands Section
Southwest Lake Superior Clay Plain Section
Southwestern Gr eat Lakes Morainal Section
W ester n Superior Uplands S ection
W isconsin Central Sands Section
uWMPrope
rty
calc
<
Intensive Survey
Site Locations
Extensive site surveys provide:
• Broad scale spatial resolution should occur
through extensive site surveys. Each extensive
site will be surveyed once over the course of the
grant, but we will survey many (200-400) sites
across Wisconsin.
• Wide taxonomic resolution through a
combination of intensive & extensive surveys
Selecting Extensive Sites
Randomly Selected Points from WISCLAND “Peats”
200 points (not weighted by Province)
149 (includes several on the line)
51
WBBA Grid Intersected with WISCLAND “Peats”
212 Laurentian Mixed Forest
(29,238 sq mi.)
222 E. Broadleaf Forest
(26,840 sq mi.)
WBBA Grid Intersected with WISCLAND “Peats”
200 Random Points Weighted by Section
•136 in 212
•64 in 222
Criteria (1)
• Exclude existing Intensive Sites.
• All taxa groups will sample within the core
area and may sample outside the core
area as time permits.
• No special degree of protection so sites
could be on public or private land
• Land owner contact specialist
Criteria (2)
•
•
•
•
 40 acres of contiguous peat
within  100 acres of contiguous wetland
(can extend outside of grid block)
potentially suitable habitat based on
WISCLAND, soils, and/or WWI data.
Open, closed, or both (preferred)
“New”grid
• In the Southern Province (222), only about
one out of five Extensive sites evaluated in
the field were found be suitable for this
project. We had selected all possible
potential sites using the WBBA grid (461
squares in 222) during spring 2004 and
ran out of acceptable sites.
• We needed to identify more potential sites
in 222 and possibly in 212
“New” grid possible approaches
• One approach would be to develop a second
grid and continue identifying sites the way we
had previously, i.e., random grid selection
followed by interpretation of the various GIS
layers and aerial photographs.
• A second approach would be to develop a
second grid based on a universe of known
potential peat sites derived from the Natural
Heritage Inventory (NHI) database.
“New” grid
Dark blocks intersect
with natural communities
in the NHI database
Potential extensive sites
in Province 222 selected
from the “new” grid
Potential extensive
sites evaluated in
2005.
80+ sites
Number of Potential Extensive
Sites
• Combined WBBA & “new” grid = 612 sites
– Includes animal sites
– Includes sites on private land
• 249 sites were delineated in Province 222
• 363 sites were delineated in Province 212
Results
Extensive sites
surveyed by the
different taxa
groups in 2005.
Note that some
sites were surveyed
by >1 taxa group.
130 sites in all.
Breeding Passerine Birds
Canada warblers
Common ravens
Common snipe
Golden-winged warblers
Least flycatchers
LeConte’s sparrow
Lincoln’s sparrows
Olive-sided flycatchers
Winter wrens
Yellow-bellied flycatchers
Yellow-billed cuckoos
178
ed
ar
bu
rg
M
is
cu
an
o
172
C
k
dr
ic
187
M
ea
d
Ki
La
ke
bo
n
Bi
hi
p
C
La
ke
300
an
so
n
Sw
Lo
w
er
ry
250
D
lle
or
to
nv
i
H
ff
No. Captured
200
Be
ld
on
Bl
u
re
ek
C
Q
ui
nc
y
ge
on
Pi
2005 Peatlands Small Mammal Captures by Site
450
417
400
350
266
285
246
205
171
150
168
103
122
100
50
0
2005 Amphibian Captures by Species (N=330)
200
161
No. Captured
160
120
96
80
55
40
8
9
1
0
RASY
RAPI
RACL
PSTR
Species
BUAM
AMLA
Rare plant species - 2005
Arethusa bulbosa
Malaxis monophyllos var. brachypoda
Bartonia paniculata
Nuphar advena
Bartonia virginica
Petasites sagittatus
Callitriche hermaphroditica
Platanthera dilatata
Calypso bulbosa
Platanthera flava var. herbiola
Cardamine pratensis
Platanthera orbiculata
Carex exilis
Polygala cruciata
Carex folliculata
Potamogeton diversifolius
Carex livida
Rhexia virginica
Carex michauxiana
Rhynchospora fusca
Carex tenuiflora
Ribes hudsonianum
Cypripedium reginae
Scleria triglomerata
Deschampsia flexuosa
Solidago ohioensis
Drosera linearis
Thalictrum venulosum
Eleocharis robbinsii
Thelypteris simulata
Eleocharis rostellata
Triglochin maritima
Epilobium palustre
Triglochin palustre
Eriophorum alpinum
Utricularia geminiscapa
Rare Invertebrates - 2005
• Macroinvertebrates: 76 visits were made to 60
sites including 56 Extensive Sites; 46 taxa
including 6 target species have been recorded.
Identification of specimens was recently
completed.
• Terrestrial invertebrates: 106 visits were made
to 72 sites including 64 Extensive Sites for
orthopterans and lepidopterans; 19 taxa
(Lepidoptera and Orthoptera), including 10
target species. Data entry continues.
Rare Bird Surveys
• In 2005, 39 sites were surveyed: 28
Extensive, 10 Intensive, 1 non-peatland
• 2006 focused on repeated surveys at 21
sites
• Target species: American bittern,
LaConte’s sparrow, Nelson's Sharp-tailed
Sparrow, Yellow Rail. Each species was
found at 1 or more sites.
Products/Conclusions
• Heritage working list revisions
• Passerine breeding bird habitat model
• Contributions to the revision of Mammals
of Wisconsin
• Replicable set of data for future surveys
• The utility but faults of GIS layers
• Development & populating of a site
database