Radar Technology - A Tool for Understanding Migratory “Aerofauna”

Understanding the factors affecting migratory bird and bat populations during all three phases of their life cycle – breeding, non-breeding, and migration – is critical to species conservation planning.  This includes the need for information about these species’ responses to natural challenges, as well as information about the impact of human activities that alter resources critical to migrants during passage and stopovers. Birds and bats are also uniquely susceptible to human use of the airspace. Wind turbines, communication and power transmission towers, and other tall structures known to cause bird and bat mortality are being erected or proposed in increasing numbers across the country. In addition, the potential for bird-aircraft collisions poses human safety threats. Management and regulatory agencies, conservation organizations, and industry currently lack this information needed to meet their missions and statutory responsibilities.

The biological data available from various radar technologies offer a unique opportunity to learn more about the spatiotemporal distribution patterns, flight characteristics, and habitat use of "aerofauna." The nationwide network of over 150 large-scale Doppler weather surveillance radars (otherwise known as NEXRAD or WSR-88D) provides continental coverage, similar to the scale of migration. Taxa that migrate include landbirds, shorebirds, wading birds, waterfowl, raptors, bats, and insects. In addition, a variety of other radar technologies (e.g., mobile and revised mobile marine radars, airport surveillance radars, military tracking radars, and other pencil-beam radars) and complementary methodologies (e.g., acoustic monitoring, thermal imaging, night-vision monitoring, and visual surveys) can be used to further our understandings of bird and bat migration and to address conservation concerns at a more local or site-specific level.

Recognizing the opportunities presented by radar technologies, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and university partners collaborated first on individual projects. They then formed a broader, informal “collaborative” to coordinate their radar-related research and work together to develop the suite of products needed for conservation of birds and bats. USGS Fort Collins Science Center scientist Janet Ruth has served as the coordinator for this collaborative effort. Having produced two summary documents (Sojda and others, 2005; Ruth and others, 2005) the next objective was to convene a workshop for researchers, management and regulatory agencies, and other interested parties. The focus of this initial workshop (Ruth 2007) was on strengthening the existing USGS-USFWS-university partnership and expanding the “collaborative” to include new Federal agency partners. The subject matter centered on discussing available technologies, appropriate applications, management-related needs, and ways to strengthen collaborative research and conservation efforts. The ultimate goal of this “collaborative” is to facilitate and further the use of radar technologies to better understand the movement patterns and habitat associations of migratory birds and other wildlife, and consequently inform wildlife management and regulatory decision-making.

Many technical issues make this collaborative effort challenging: complex data structures, massive data sets, issues of target identity, large areas not covered by weather surveillance radars, model validation, ground truthing radar data, linking migrants with stopover habitat, and standardization of protocols.  Also, our partners face many biological, management, and regulatory issues concerning:

• tall structures (e.g., telecommunication towers, electric utility structures, offshore oil platforms),
• wind power,
• bird-aircraft strikes,
• habitat protection and identification of key natural and artificial habitats, and
• effectiveness of management activities.

There is also a need to facilitate better communications among researchers, managers, regulators, conservationists, and industry.  However, progress will only be furthered by tackling these issues and challenges. This will involve:

• facilitating a productive collaboration with Federal management and regulatory agencies and academic researchers as targeted in our first workshop, as well as State agencies, industry, and other interested organizations;
• building and strengthening scientific capabilities within USGS where appropriate;
• addressing key migratory bird management issues; and
• promoting full funding for necessary research and development.

One of the Action Items that was identified and endorsed by the radar workshop participants was to “Create a ‘radar collaborative’ Web site to provide information about radar biology applications, contacts, publications, etc.” As proposed by this Action Item, this radar science Web site will serve as an initial source of basic radar biology information, with links to applicable Web sites and downloadable files, contact information, an updateable bibliography, and workshop proceedings.

 Find out more about USGS radar-related research

Contact:

Janet Ruth
USGS Fort Collins Science Center
Arid Lands Field Station
UNM Biology Dept., MSC03 2020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM   87131
Phone: 505-346-2870 Ext. 12
Email: janet_ruth@usgs.gov

Also at FORT:

• Management and research applications of long-range surveillance radar data for birds, bats, and flying insects
• Applying radar technology to migratory bird conservation and management: strengthening and expanding a collaborative
• Advancing migratory bird conservation and management by using radar: an interagency collaboration
• Using radar to advance migratory bird management: an interagency collaboration
• Bird migration patterns in the arid Southwest using Doppler radar