New wading bird study

Seabird Study: Utilization of Estuarine and intertidal habitats at the John D. MacArthur State Park

Principal investigator: Diane Arrieta, MSc. 

Research Assistant: Leah Plocharczyk, MA

State permit #11171515

Internships available for Wilkes Honors students (approved by the honors college)

Spring semester internship is already full

This long term study plans to investigate the use of Estuarine and Intertidal Habitats by wading birds at low tide within park boundaries of the John D. MacArthur State Park, located in Riviera Beach, FL [Palm Beach County, FL]. The scheme aims to monitor, assess and regularly update information on the relative importance of inter-tidal feeding areas within park boundaries to document abundance and distribution patterns for the following species.

Species:

Table 1. Birds of the order Ciconiiformes in Florida (Sizemore, et. al., 2012)

Common Name	Species Name	Family	Status
Great Egret	Ardea alba	Ardeidae	Native
Snowy Egret	Egretta thula	Ardeidae	Native
Reddish Egret	Egretta rufescens	Ardeidae	Native
Cattle Egret	Bubulcus ibis	Ardeidae	Native*
Great Blue Heron	Ardea herodias	Ardeidae	Native
Tricolored Heron	Egretta tricolor	Ardeidae	Native
Little Blue Heron	Egretta caerulea	Ardeidae	Native
Black-crowned Night-Heron	Nycticorax nycticorax	Ardeidae	Native
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron	Nyctanassa violacea	Ardeidae	Native
Green Heron	Butorides virescens	Ardeidae	Native
American Bittern	Botaurus lentiginosus	Ardeidae	Native
Least Bittern	Ixobrychus exilis	Ardeidae	Native
Wood Stork	Mycteria americana	Ciconiidae	Native
Roseate Spoonbill	Platalea ajaja	Threskiornithidae	Native
White Ibis	Eudocimus albus	Threskiornithidae	Native
Glossy Ibis	Plegadis falcinellus	Threskiornithidae	Native
Sacred Ibis	Threskiornis aethiopicus	Threskiornithidae	Non-native
Scarlet Ibis	Eudocimus ruber	Threskiornithidae	Non-native
*Arrived in Florida VIA natural range expansion.

The objectives of our monitoring include:

1. Assess baseline seabird foraging rates at our four sites

2. Assess seabird roost utilization at sites

3. Assess distribution fluctuations between seasons and environmental conditions

4. Assess baseline levels of human-caused disturbance; especially in Lake Worth Cove 

Reference: 

Grant C. Sizemore, Martin B. Main, and Elise V. Pearlstine, 2015. Florida's Wading Birds: IFAS Extention. PUblication #WEC267 Available: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw309 

Good News for Frogs

New Galapagos Giant Tortoise Species (Chelonoidis; Testudines: Testudinidae) named.

A new article published on Plos ONe describes the events that led to naming a new species of Giant Tortoise on the island of Santa Cruz. Currently, the taxonomy of giant Galapagos tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) is currently based on morphological characters and island of origin. Several studies over the past decade recorded multiple independent evolutionary lineages, prompting the need for taxonomic revision. The article goes on to report that “two evolutionarily and spatially distinct lineages on the western and eastern sectors of the island, known as the Reserva and Cerro Fatal populations, respectively” (Poulakakis, et. al, 2015).

Fig 1. Geographic distribution of the two known lineages of giant tortoises on Santa Cruz Island: Chelonoidis porteri (Reserva) and Chelonoidis sp. nov. (Cerro Fatal) (indicated in dark gray).

Light gray area connecting the distribution areas of the two species indicates agricultural land. Modified from Russello et al. [11].

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0138779.g001

To read the full journal article and learn more about this new species click here.

Reference:

Poulakakis N, Edwards DL, Chiari Y, Garrick RC, Russello MA, Benavides E, et al. (2015) Description of a New Galapagos Giant Tortoise Species (Chelonoidis; Testudines: Testudinidae) from Cerro Fatal on Santa Cruz Island. PLoS ONE 10(10): e0138779. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0138779

Meet the Scientist Lecture Series Hosted by Taras Oceanographic Foundation

Free science lectures held at The Jupiter Community High School (500 N, Military Trail, Jupiter, FL) Lectures are at 7:00 pm in the auditorium for the dates below:

DATE                     SPEAKERS    

                      

10/13/15              Rebekah Corlew              

    Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience

   THEME : Thinking Like A Scientist

11/18/15             Tom Fitz                              

   Tom Fitz Production

   THEME : The Art of Wildlife Filmmaking

12/09/15             Joseph Marcellino, Danilo Gardi and Bob Gerber

                           IMEGA International

   THEME : Towards A Sustainable Future: Alternative Fuel Systems

01/13/16             Linda Emerson  Beach Guardians Atlantic Coast

   THEME : Mindful Beachcombing: Becoming Part of the Solution to                              Marine Plastic Pollution

02/10/16            Prof. Jon Moore, Ph.D. 

  Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University

  THEME : Oh God, It's Hideous! Deep-Sea Animals in the North Atlantic.

03/09/16           Tom Poulson, Ph.D.       

  Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago

  THEME : Science as a Powerful Way of Learning While Having Fun

04/13/16            Barbara J Brunnick, Ph.D. & Benoit Duverneuil

  Palm Beach Dolphin Project & Coastal Dolphin Conservation

  THEME : Dolphin Research and Conservation – Using Drones to Expand a Long-  Term Study

https://taras.org/?q=meet-scientist-lecture-series

Sea Otter awareness

What the frack? Hydraulic fracturing fact sheet

The following has been taken from the website: http://www.dangersoffracking.com/ 

You can click on the link to learn more about the FRAC Act (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act). [Borrowed here for educational purposes]

·         Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside.

·         Each gas well requires an average of 400 tanker trucks to carry water and supplies to and from the site.

·         It takes 1-8 million gallons of water to complete each fracturing job.

·         The water brought in is mixed with sand and chemicals to create fracking fluid. Approximately 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used per fracturing.

·         Up to 600 chemicals are used in fracking fluid, including known carcinogens and toxins such as…LEAD, URANIUM, MERCURY, ETHYLENE GLYCOL, RADIUM, METHANOL, HYDROCHLORIC ACID, and FORMALDEHYDE.

·         The fracking fluid is then pressure injected into the ground through a drilled pipeline.

·         500,000 Active gas wells in the US X 8 million Gallons of water per fracking X 18 Times a well can be fracked.

·         The mixture reaches the end of the well where the high pressure causes the nearby shale rock to crack, creating fissures where natural gas flows into the well.

·         During this process, methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater.

·         Methane concentrations are 17x higher in drinking-water wells near fracturing sites than in normal wells.

·         Contaminated well water is used for drinking water for nearby cities and towns.

·         There have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling as well as cases of sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water.

·         Only 30-50% of the fracturing fluid is recovered, the rest of the toxic fluid is left in the ground and is not biodegradable.

·         The waste fluid is left in open air pits to evaporate, releasing harmful VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) into the atmosphere, creating contaminated air, acid rain, and ground level ozone.

·         In the end, hydraulic fracking produces approximately 300,000 barrels of natural gas a day, but at the price of numerous environmental, safety, and health hazards.

image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing#/media/File:BarnettShaleDrilling-9323.jpg 

Sea Level Rise in South Florida

According to Strauss who has  written about sea level rise, "Florida is in the crosshairs of climate change. Rising seas, a population crowded along the coast, porous bedrock, and the relatively common occurrence of tropical storms put more real estate and people at risk from storm surges aggravated by sea level rise in Florida, than any other state by far - See more at: http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/news/floria-and-the-rising-sea#sthash.wNYclQmf.dpuf "

If you are wondering about the specific neighborhoods you live in and how far the water will rise-- there is an interactive map that can be found on Climate Central's webpage that can predict how vulnerable your neighborhood is. They state that "more than half the population of more than 100 Florida towns and cities lives on land below that 4-foot line. Miami-Dade and Broward counties each have more people below 4 feet than any state, except Florida itself and Louisiana".

Their analysis included many factors such as sea level rise projections, storm surge patterns, local topography and even patterns of development.

You can access the interactive map here. 

map image from  http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/

Reference: Strauss.,n.d. Florida and the rising sea. Online. Available at:  http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/news/floria-and-the-rising-sea