Sea Level Rise and Storm Wave Flooding Threaten Seabirds plus 1 more

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Title: USGS Newsroom

Sea Level Rise and Storm Wave Flooding Threaten Seabirds plus 1 more

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Sea Level Rise and Storm Wave Flooding Threaten Seabirds

Posted: 23 Sep 2015 11:15 AM PDT

Summary: Islands used by tropical seabirds are highly vulnerable to sea level rise according to a new study released today

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Contact Information:

Katie  Keck ( Phone: 808-985-6408 ); Paul Laustsen ( Phone: 650-329-4046 );

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Black-footed albatross with chick, nesting black-footed albatrosses are especially vulnerable to sea-level rise and sudden flooding on low-lying islands . (High resolution image)

ISLAND OF HAWAI‘I, Hawaii — Islands used by tropical seabirds are highly vulnerable to sea level rise according to a new study released today. Many seabird species have disappeared from human-populated islands and their worldwide distributions are now concentrated on low-lying islands protected as wildlife refuges and marine national monuments.

Led by the U.S. Geological Survey, the study showed that Laysan albatrosses, black-footed albatrosses and Bonin petrels are especially susceptible to repeated nest losses from sudden flooding events expected to increase in frequency and magnitude with sea level rise and storm surge.

“Our study illustrates that sea-level rise threats will affect low-lying Pacific Islands earlier than previously expected,” said seabird ecologist Karen Courtot of the USGS. “Restoring seabird colonies at higher elevations provides alternatives for species most vulnerable to overwash events before nests are perpetually flooded.”

To understand how climate change may impact islands and their biodiversity, scientists modeled sea level rise combined with storm surge at an important seabird breeding colony on Midway Atoll in the subtropical Pacific Ocean. An analysis of habitat and seabird traits revealed that albatrosses and Bonin petrels were especially exposed to sudden flooding when the rising sea is combined with winter storm waves.

Researchers measured the average elevation of three islands that make up Midway Atoll at 3.2 meters or less and mapped flooding on these islands using various sea level rise scenarios at 0.5 meter, 1 meter, 1.5 meters, and 2 meters. A scenario using 2 meters sea level rise, compounded by ground water inundation and storm waves, could cause the displacement of more than 616,400 breeding albatrosses and Bonin petrels. Approximately 60 percent of the albatrosses and 40 percent of the Bonin petrels’ nests were flooded.

More than 95 percent of the global breeding populations of Laysan albatrosses, black-footed albatrosses and Bonin petrels are restricted to breeding in the low-lying northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Their egg-laying and chick-rearing occurs when storm waves are most likely to strike.     

“A surprising result to many is that some of the most locally abundant species like albatrosses and Bonin petrels were actually the most sensitive to sea level rise impacts,” said Michelle Reynolds, lead author of the USGS-led study.

In the Hawaiian Islands, invasive predators prevent the establishment of seabird breeding colonies at higher elevations and remain a threat to nesting seabirds.

The journal article “Will the Effects of Sea-Level Rise Create Ecological Traps for Pacific Island Seabirds?” was published today in PLOS ONE with lead author Michelle Reynolds and her USGS co-authors Karen Courtot and Curt Storlazzi, and Paul Berkowitz of Hawaii Cooperative Study Unit at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Janet Moore of Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, and Elizabeth Flint of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.          

Map with the location of the Hawaiian Islands and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. (High resolution image)

Invasive Silver Carp Respond Strongly to Sound

Posted: 23 Sep 2015 09:30 AM PDT

Summary: Silver carp, a species of invasive Asian carp, demonstrated a strong aversion to certain noises during a recent study on the potential use of sound for silver carp control

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Could Noise Help Protect the Great Lakes Basin?

Contact Information:

Mark Gaikowski, USGS ( Phone: 608-781-6221 ); Alan Mensinger, UMD ( Phone: 218-260-9641 ); Marisa Lubeck, USGS ( Phone: 303-202-4765 );

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Silver carp, a species of invasive Asian carp, demonstrated a strong aversion to certain noises during a recent study on the potential use of sound for silver carp control.

Scientists with the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) and the U.S. Geological Survey recently studied silver carps’ reaction to sound at the USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The researchers found that silver carp reacted strongly to complex noises such as underwater recordings of boat motors, consistently swimming away up to 37 times in succession. The results are published in the journal Biological Invasions.

“Silver carp threaten many waterways in the Great Lakes basin by competing with native species,” said USGS UMESC Director Mark Gaikowski. “Understanding silver carp behavior is critical for determining effective techniques to minimize the ecological and economic damage of this invasive species.”

Brooke Vetter, a UMD graduate student and lead author of the report, positioned speakers at both ends of outdoor concrete ponds. She compared the carps’ response to pure tones, which sound like a dial tone, to their response to more complex noises. The fish adjusted to the pure tones, never swimming away more than two consecutive times, but continuously responded negatively to complex sound.

“Our complex noise findings suggest that certain sounds could be used to divert silver carp away from strategic points on waterways or herd them into nets,” Vetter said.

Results from this study have provided the foundation for the UMD, USGS and Illinois Natural History Survey to conduct field trials testing the efficacy of complex noise as a silver carp control tool in the Illinois River.

Silver carp are reshaping river ecosystems through competition with native fish and mussels for the plankton that form the base of aquatic food webs. In regions of the Illinois River where carp populations are the most abundant, carp account for a large percentage of the river's biomass.

Silver carp also present a danger to boaters because fish as large as 20 pounds can jump 10 feet out of the water, causing injury and damaging boats.

More information about silver carp research is available on the USGS UMESC, UMD, Asian carp sound research project and asiancarp.us websites.