A sampling of Patuxent's activities in the State of Maryland include:
- BRD Patuxent scientists provide tools
used by the Maryland and District of Columbia Breeding
Bird Atlas project. The atlas project, run by the Maryland
Ornithological Society (MOS), is a grid-based survey covering the entire
area during the years 2002-2006, and will produce maps of avian distribution
and abundance. Partnering with NBII, Patuxent
created and maintains the tools and provides central data management, web-based
data entry, and maps showing interim progress. Project coordinators, hundreds
of volunteers, and the public may check progress visually and compare results
to the first breeding bird atlas, conducted from 1983-1987. Also see NBII
Bird Conservation node website.
- Maryland participates in bird population monitoring as part of the North
American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), an international effort jointly
coordinated by the USGS Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center and Canadian Wildlife
Service. Data are collected once per year using a point count technique
in which participants identify and tally local bird species by sight and
sound along randomly selected roadside locations. These data provide avian
distribution information and population trends at state, regional and national
scales. In 2004, 55 of 57 Maryland BBS routes were sampled with 151 bird
species detected and 45,337 individuals tallied.
- Maryland is involved in surveying frog and toad populations as part of the North
American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP), a collaborative effort
among USGS, state agencies, and other partners, to provide anuran distribution
information and population trends at state and regional scales. Data are
collected using a calling survey technique, in which volunteer observers
identify local amphibian species by their unique vocalizations at assigned
roadside routes. In Maryland, volunteers collect data several times per year
during the spring and summer by listening for the breeding calls of the 19
species found in the state. USGS provides central coordination and data management
for NAAMP from the Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center in Laurel, Maryland.
- Patuxent scientists are investigating sea duck use in the Chesapeake Bay;
sea ducks winter in the Bay but migrate to points in eastern Canada to breed
and raise young. In addition to determining movements and habitat use by
following individual birds implanted with satellite transmitters, their food
habits and bioenergetics during the wintering in the Bay are being investigated.
See Patuxent's seaduck
site.
- Scientists at Patuxent are developing methods to assess nutria
presence. Presently a major effort by Wildlife Service, APHIS, is underway
to eliminate nutria from several eastern shore National Wildlife Refuges.
Nutria have been trapped and there is hope that the program will successfully
eradicate this exotic species. The Patuxent scientists are working on methods
to detect nutria when their abundances are low. Detection under these circumstances
is important in order to find any nutria missed by the eradication effort or
of nutria that have colonized the treated area. Recent presence/absence analytical
methods will allow a quantifiable assessment of the success of eradication
efforts. See Patuxent
Science Brief (PDF).
- Delmarva fox squirrel: Patuxent scientists are working on two projects
that assess the affects of human habitat alterations (selected harvesting and
prescribed burning in forests) on this endangered squirrel. Changes in home
range size and the correlated specific habitat difference as well as the movement
patters among patches in the forests are being investigated with mark recapture
techniques and with radio telemetry of their movements. See poster for more
information (PDF).
- Contaminants issues including: sediment ingestion exposure of Chesapeake
Bay wildlife to contaminants; endocrine disrupting chemical effects on Diamondback
Terrapins; and effects of chemicals on macroinvertebrates and amphibian larvae
on Refuges.
More Patuxent contaminants
information..
- Wetlands and communities issues including: restored and natural coastal marsh
use by migratory birds in the Chesapeake Bay; ecology of Black Ducks in the
Bloodsworth-south marsh-Deal Island complex; Patuxent Long-term Monitoring
and Ecological Research (PALMER) project; survival and habitat use of fall
migrant Sora Rails on the Patuxent River marsh; body condition of wintering
Black Ducks on National Wildlife Refuges; field validation of a constructed
wetland system for wastewater treatment; optimal strategies for biodiversity
within a powerline right-of-way; evaluation of forested wetlands constructed
for mitigation of natural systems; and landscape planning to retain breeding
forest birds in a fragmented environment.
More Patuxent wetlands/communities
information..
- Maryland partners with Patuxent including: Maryland Department of Natural
Resources; Friends of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and Patuxent Research
Refuge; colleges and universities; USGS Chesapeake Bay Program; USGS Maryland
Water Resource District; US Fish Wildlife Service Chesapeake Bay Office; US
Fish and Wildlife Service Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and Eastern Neck National
Wildlife Refuge; US Department of Agriculture-Beltsville Laboratory; Department
of Defense Corps of Engineers-Baltimore District; Environmental Protection
Agency; and Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
See Patuxent's Partners page.
U.S. Department of the Interior,
US
Geological Survey,
Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center, Laurel, MD 20708
URL:
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov
Contact:
Webmaster
Last modified:
03/12/2008
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