Archiving Legacy Waterbird Nesting Data to Inform Adaptive Management of Wetland Habitats in the West

Title

Archiving Legacy Waterbird Nesting Data to Inform Adaptive Management of Wetland Habitats in the West

Research Area(s):

Biology

Description: Physical form of the data:

paper

Description: Content and context of data, if known:

The San Francisco Bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of North America, but it has lost nearly 80% of its tidal marshes and 40% of its tidal flats over the past two centuries due to urban development, agriculture, and salt production. In particular, about 35,000 acres of artificial salt evaporation ponds were constructed within the former baylands. Recently, more than 25,000 acres of salt ponds have been transferred to government ownership, and these wetland habitats are now adaptively managed for wildlife by federal National Wildlife Refuges and state Wildlife Areas. The South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project in San Francisco Bay is the largest wetland restoration project on the west coast of North America, and will restore 50-90% of the 25,000 acres of salt ponds to tidal marsh to reverse the loss of tidal marsh within the San Francisco Bay Estuary. In this proposal, our goal is to archive the legacy waterbird nesting data that currently exists for wetlands undergoing intensive wetland restoration, so that the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project can use these data to guide the adaptive management of these restored lands. We request funds to support the development of an enterprise-level nesting database in a relational database management system to archive and access these data, and to enter the histories of nearly 12,500 nests into the new database.

Name of current data holder:

U. S. Geological Survey

Dates associated with data:

2005-2011

Size:

12,500 nest summaries

Data condition:

fair

Risk level:

medium

Known access and restrictions:

none

Notes:

These legacy data include 7-years and nearly 12,500 detailed nest histories for breeding waterbirds. Of immediate importance, is archiving and entering these data into an easily accessible electronic archival database so that these results can be immediately used to guide the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, which is the largest wetland restoration project on the west coast of North America, and adaptive management of wetlands at several state and federal wildlife refuges. Furthermore, this proposal addresses 4 of the 5 priorities related to the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s refuge systems documented "Inventory and Monitoring Needs": (1) Inventory, (2) Adaptive Management, (3) Legacy Data, and (4) Synthesis of Spatial Data. Our proposal will archive a long-term dataset on waterbird breeding on the USFWS Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge and California Department of Fish and Game’s Eden Landing Ecological Reserve, which will provide a repository for baseline data on waterbirds using the Refuges over time as the Restoration Project alters theirlandscape. Further, our enterprise-level database will provide easy access to breeding results that will provide management recommendations for the adaptive management of wetland habitats on state and federal refuges and will guide the large-scale South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project. Our proposal also incorporates a spatial component, as we will provide breeding maps of waterbirds throughout the San Francisco Bay Refuges and highlight areas of both poor and superior reproductive success to target management actions.

Contact information:

Dr. Josh Ackerman

Citation

“Archiving Legacy Waterbird Nesting Data to Inform Adaptive Management of Wetland Habitats in the West ,” Data-at-Risk Inventory, accessed May 19, 2013, http://www.ibiblio.org/data-at-risk/items/show/87.