Download OysterCatcher / Spring 2016 - Apalachicola National Estuarine

A publication of the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve
Spring 2016
Staff & Students Producing Course Videos
Local Ed Program
GoesYouTube
Inside
Get Wet & Sandy ... 2
Habitat Enhancement ... 3
Bay Friendly Living ... 4
A Fresh Start ... 5
By Gibby Conrad, Education Specialist
The ANERR Education Department has been working with Franklin County’s schools for
many years to offer local students and teachers the opportunity to take advantage of the
unique resources available through the Reserve. The types of programming offered have
evolved over the years to take advantage of changes both at the Reserve and in the schools.
Since moving into the new facility in Eastpoint in 2011, we have implemented a slate of
programs designed to build upon one another as the students advance and mature. The
programs start in pre-K with a hermit crab activity that includes a reading of House for
Hermit Crab and a live demonstration of how hermit crabs change their shells. The pre-K
program is done in the classroom, but all of the other grade levels are conducted at our
facility or in the field. First graders are introduced to ANERR through a guided tour of the
Nature Center and a beach wrack line scavenger hunt. In the third grade the activities
See Local Ed, page 7
GetThose Feet
Wet & Sandy!
COMING UP
Sea Turtle Talks
June, July, & August
Every Wednesday
2 - 3 pm
Special Guest Lectures
June 15
Dr. Mariana Fuentes
on her nighttime work on
nesting female sea turtles
on St George Island
June 22
Jamie Price
on his MS research on beach
brightness and sea turtle
nesting spatial relationships
Contact Gibby Conrad,
[email protected]
The Nature Walk at the Reserve.
By Jenna Harper, Reserve Manager
This is an amazing time of the year in Franklin County. The trees are leafing out and
flowers are blooming everywhere. We have songbirds migrating through and shorebirds
starting to settle down for another summer of rearing their raucous brood. The days are
warm, but nights are just cool enough to have the windows open and enjoy the breeze
all night long. This is the time of year to get out and enjoy the natural world around us!
Most residents of Franklin County (not just the winged and four-legged furry types) are
here because of the natural beauty that surrounds us and the resources that the bay and
river system provide. Generations ago, this special place was so highly valued that much
of the land surrounding Apalachicola Bay and River is now state or federally-owned.
Conservation and protection are the foremost goals of land management, but recreation
is an important component as well. People need to experience nature before they have
an appreciation for all that it provides. They need to appreciate the resources here to in
turn become stewards of these protected areas. Here at the Reserve we are developing
a “Roadmap to Recreation” together with other local managing agencies. This guide will
highlight recreational opportunities in and around Apalachicola Bay that are low-impact
and sustainable. Whether you are interested in hunting, fishing, birding, kayaking or
camping, there are many areas to explore throughout the area. Maybe this spring you’ll
discover something new.
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OYSTERCATCHER
The St. George Island Causeway (shown above during a controlled burn) is due for
restoration to improve its shorebird nesting habitat. A fledging oystercatcher (inset
at right) awaits feeding on the causeway.
The St. George Island Causeway gets a facelift
A Habitat Enhancement
By Megan Lamb, ECSC Coordinator of Research Services
The planned restoration of the St. George Island Causeway will improve the habitat for shorebirds nesting on the
island each spring and summer. The causeway is a well-known birding hotspot in Apalachicola Bay, hosting colonies of
Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis; Florida listed species), Least Terns (Sternula antillarum; Florida listed species),
Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger; Florida listed species), Royal Terns (Thalasseus maximus), Sandwich Terns (Thalasseus
sandvicensis), Gull-billed Terns (Gelochelidon nilotica), Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia), Laughing Gulls (Leucophaeus
atricilla), and several pairs of solitary nesting American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliates; Florida listed species).
Together this group lays over 3,000 nests annually and is one of the largest nesting congregations of seabirds and
shorebirds in the state.
Small numbers of Black Skimmers and Terns began nesting on the sides of the roadway that ran through the original
causeway structure in the 1980s. As nest numbers grew, ANERR worked with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission (FWC) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to install bird fencing separating the roadway and
nesting areas and to reduce speed limits during nesting season. In 1990, the causeway was designated an FWC Critical
Wildlife Area (CWA) from April 1-August 31. CWAs are established to protect important wildlife concentrations from
disturbance during critical periods of their life cycle, such as nesting or migration. When the new bridge was constructed
in 2003 and the old bridge was decommissioned, the state-owned island was turned over from DOT to ANERR to
manage as a wildlife area.
While ANERR staff have continued to monitor nesting and post CWA signs to prevent disturbance seasonally, we have
partnered with Audubon Florida to make some larger scale improvements to the area. Audubon Florida received
See Causeway, page 7
3
Spring 2016
Simple steps you can take to be ‘Bay Friendly’
Bay Friendly Living
By Anita Grove, Coastal Training Program Coordinator
We are fortunate to live in a magnificent place. Clean air, clean water, plenty of places to explore and seek
solitude, no high rises or traffic, plus some of the best seafood in the world. The biggest impacts to the health
of the Apalachicola River and Bay are upstream water diversions and the human impacts on the system locally.
Water flow issues might be beyond our immediate control, but there are simple steps to take to be bay friendly.
Trash - Trash on the bridges, on the roadside and
beaches ends up in the water and becomes a hazard
for wildlife and pollutes the water. Secure trash in
your truck bed or boat, then recycle or dispose of it
properly. Remember to use recyclable items to reduce
overall waste.
Yards - Create a bay friendly yard by planting bushes
and trees that provide habitat for wildlife rather than an
expansive green lawn that needs mowing, chemicals
and fertilizers. If you have a lawn, use organic or slow
release fertilizer. Do not apply fertilizers before it rains.
This practice does not “water in” fertilizer; it washes
it down the storm drain. Plant drought tolerant, low
maintenance plants that do not need lots of water or
fertilizer. For more info on creating a bay friendly yard,
go to fyn.ifas.ufl.edu/
Storm Drains - Ever notice the storm drains around
the community? These remove rainwater from streets
and yards and drain to the bay. Whatever ends up in
them makes its way to the bay. Retaining rainwater that
flows off your roof and driveway in your yard allows it
to percolate or filter through the soil. Choose pervious
pavers, shell or rock instead of concrete for driveways,
paths and patios. This natural filtering prevents
rainwater that has collected fertilizers, oil or pesticides
from draining directly into the bay. It also reduces the
storm water runoff.
Create a bay friendly yard by planting bushes and trees that provide
habitat for wildlife.
Run-off - Make sure your boat and vehicle are not
leaking oil, radiator fluid or fuel. Leaking fluids end
up on the ground and when it rains these pollutants
wash down the street, into the storm drains and out
to the bay or river during the next rain. Also, use nontoxic soaps to wash your car and boat and don’t dump
anything toxic into storm drains. Remember, storms
drains empty into the bay!
Pets - Clean up after pets. Animal waste also affects the health of the bay and river.
Septic Tanks - Service your septic system regularly. Leaking septic systems can pollute the bay and river. Do not
plant trees or bushes in the drain field or park on top of your system. These practices can damage your system.
RX - Do not dump medicines down the toilet or the sink. Researchers are now finding significant levels of
medication in the waters that surround communities.
For more information on these topics and more, contact Anita Grove at (850) 670-7708.
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OYSTERCATCHER
Winter/Spring a boost to fish & invertebrate habitats
A Fresh Start
By Jason Garwood, Fisheries Biologist, Estuarine Community Ecologist, Research Section
If we were to stop and take a look at the landscape around northern Florida during the month of December, we
would most likely get the impression that things are starting to slow down for Mother Nature. However, if we were
to look to the water, more specifically the waters of Apalachicola Bay, we see that this is far from the truth. Just
as schools usher in a new class of students to the classroom each fall, in Apalachicola Bay, the fall season initiates
a process in which large schools of adult fishes, shrimps, and crabs emigrate out of our estuarine inlets to reside
nearshore and even further offshore where they spawn. These spawn, tiny babies called larvae, begin their lives as
plankton, with no great ability to move, except to migrate up and down in the water column each day following their
prey source. These babies have to rely on Mother Nature to move them out of their natal habitat, and after a few
weeks or months, depending on the species,
they are pushed by wind and tidal currents
A few terms that will have you sounding like a true ecologist in no time
through the passes from the Gulf of Mexico into
the bay where they can be safer from predation
Ecology: Study of organisms, their interaction with each other, and their environment
and find abundant food to grow.
Habitat: Ecological or environmental area inhabited by a species or group of species
With this bit of information in mind, one
Population: Members of the same species utilizing a defined habitat
might ask, “So what happens once they get
here?” From our long-term fisheries monitoring
Community: Different species residing within the same habitat
program here at the Reserve, we’ve gleaned
Plankton: Aquatic or marine organisms that are unable to swim against a current
a wealth of information regarding the fate of
these animals once they reach Apalachicola
Nekton: Aquatic or marine organisms that have the ability to swim against a current
Bay (Figure 1). One of the first things that
Emigration/Immigration: Moving out of/into a habitat
can be noted is that recruitment into the
Recruitment: Immigration of an age-class to a new habitat or older age-class
estuary is nearly continuous, meaning it
occurs throughout most of the year. However,
Resource Partitioning: When species divide a resource to avoid competition
when we look closer, we find that although
recruitment remains fairly steady, it is also
sequential, meaning that multiple species have
high peaks in abundance that are offset relative
to each other throughout the year (Figure 2).
During the winter, species such as spot, Atlantic
croaker, menhaden, and pinfish tend to be
the dominant species we encounter. As we
get closer to the spring and summer months
recruitment tends to be dominated by bay
anchovy, sand seatrout, aviu shrimp, pigfish,
white shrimp, and silver perch. We also see that
some species, particularly pinfish, sand seatrout
(Figure 2 top), and our commercially important
gulf whiting (kingfish) have multiple recruitment
peaks per year. Thus, some of our species have
two or more separate spawning events.
So why would this happen? Here’s one possible
explanation. Food and structural habitat for
protection from predators may be substantially
greater in systems like Apalachicola Bay
when compared to other habitats such as the
offshore Gulf of Mexico, but these resources
continued next page
Figure 1 / Map of Apalachicola Bay showing the Reserve’s long-term,
system-wide fisheries monitoring locations
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Spring 2016
Recruitment Period of the Ten Most Abundant Post-larval and Juvenile Nekton in Apalachicola Bay
Bay anchovy
Spot
Atlantic croaker
Menhaden
Pinfish
Sand seatrout
Aviu shrimp
Pigfish
White shrimp
Silver perch
Months where peak
recruitment occurred.
Months where the frequency
of peak recruitment
was the greatest.
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
Recruitment Period of Ten of the Popular Commercial and Recreationally Import Post-larval and Juvenile Nekton in Apalachicola Bay
White shrimp
Greater blue crab
Pink shrimp
Brown shrimp
Gulf whiting
Lane snapper
Gulf flounder
Spotted Seatrout
Southern flounder
Oscillated flounder
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
Figure 2 / Table showing recruitment (time of entry) and peak recruitment (time of greatest abundance) for post-larval fishes,
shrimps, and crabs (nekton) in Apalachicola Bay.
Seasonal Percentage Similarity of Nekton Communities in Apalachicola Bay by Station
WINTER
40
SPRING
20
40
60
60
80
Mid Bay
West
Mid Bay
East
Pilot’s
Cove
Nick’s
Hole
State
Park
Mid Bay
West
Mid Bay
East
Pilot’s
Cove
Nick’s
Hole
State
Park
Two Mile
Channel
St. Vincent
East Bay
North
East Bay
Central
Two Mile
Channel
St. Vincent
East Bay
North
East Bay
Central
State
Park
100
Nick’s
Hole
100
Pilot’s
Cove
80
Mid Bay
East
80
Two Mile
Channel
60
Mid Bay
West
60
St. Vincent
40
East Bay
North
FALL
20
40
East Bay
Central
East Bay
South
100
East Bay
South
SUMMER
20
Percentage of Similarity
State
Park
Nick’s
Hole
Pilot’s
Cove
Mid Bay
West
Mid Bay
East
St. Vincent
Two Mile
Channel
East Bay
North
East Bay
Central
East Bay
South
100
East Bay
South
Percentage of Similarity
80
Figure 3 / Cluster diagrams showing the percent similarity of the nekton communities in Apalachicola Bay by location and season.
Similarity is based on species and proportion of each species relative to each other.
See Fresh Start, last page
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OYSTERCATCHER
Local Ed, from page 1
become more scientific with the dissection of oyster clumps to
see what other species use the reef for habitat.
Third graders also do a beach seining activity to look for and
catalog juvenile species in the bay. Fifth graders return to the
Center to plant a living shoreline and learn how the Spartina
they have planted to reduce erosion is adapted to living in the
harsh environment of the bayside beach. In seventh grade the
students go back out into the marsh to see the fruits of their
labor. They count periwinkle snails that are living on the marsh
grasses and discover the food web that the snails represent in
the shoreline habitat that they created in fifth grade. Students
visit the Reserve for their last program in the tenth grade. This
time we return to oysters with the focus on spat settlement on
different types of substrate. The students count living oysters
on three different types of substrate that were put out in
the bay ten months earlier. After discussing oyster anatomy
and lifecycle, we use data collected from our data-loggers
in the bay to help the students come up with hypotheses on
why they found more or less oysters on the substrates than
previous years and what their findings might mean for health
of the bay as a whole.
All of the programs led by the education staff at the Reserve
share the common goal of promoting stewardship through
increased awareness and understanding of the estuary
ecosystem. This year we have implemented a new component
to our school programs that we hope will spread the stewardship
message throughout the county and beyond. In conjunction
with our communication specialist, Kennedy Hanson, we are
producing videos of our school based programs that the students
will be able to upload and share on social media sites. Each
video will include every student in the class and be narrated
Students research and discuss oyster anatomy, lifecycle, and habitat.
by the students. The expectation is that the videos and their
stewardship message will be accessed by the community at
large. The videos will also be used as an educational tool to
remind the kids of what they did in the past and emphasize the
cohesiveness of the programs. Videos can be accessed on our
YouTube channel at goo.gl/TJqcnf or through the “Watch Video”
link at the top of our Facebook page.
No discussion of our education programs would be complete
without a special “thank you” to Friends of the Reserve. For
over fifteen years our Friends group has been helping our
local schools bring field trips to the Reserve by providing
funding for transportation and substitute teachers. Without
their help our school programs would not be possible.
Causeway, from page 3
a grant from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for
enhancements in three areas to restore nesting habitat: better
and more permanent signage, installation of chick fencing,
and stabilization the seawall to prevent further deterioration.
New, more visible permanent signs indicating the island’s
CWA status have been installed at the north and south
bulkheads of the island and sturdier signage will continue
to be placed around the entire perimeter during the CWA
period. Chick fencing will be installed on the south end of
the island near the large tern and skimmer colony to prevent
flightless chicks from falling into the water. Finally, in the
fall we will work to stabilize sections of the seawall that are
deteriorating, leaving the island vulnerable to overwash. The
project will place rock and rubble revetments along failing
sections of seawall, preventing further erosion. Additional
partnership with Audubon has provided increased monitoring
efforts, giving us a more complete picture about the fate of
nests, eggs, and chicks on the island.
ANERR is also experimenting with methods to control the
vegetation on the causeway. While some species like to nest
7
Spring 2016
in grassy areas such as brown pelicans and laughing gulls, tern
and skimmer species prefer open sandy, shelly habitat. When
the original roadway was cleared off the causeway there was
abundant sandy habitat. Over the years vegetation has grown,
likely assisted by the abundant amounts of natural fertilizer
the birds deposit each year. Making the problem more
challenging to manage are the deep root structures of the
grasses covering the causeway, embedded rocks left under
the surface of the original roadway, and difficulty of bringing
equipment to the island. Reserve staff are experimenting with
using prescribed fire to help reduce above ground biomass
and more frequent mowing and disking during the winter to
make the vegetation easier to manage, increasing the amount
of area we can clear for the terns in their favorite spot on
the southern end of their island. Our goal through these
projects and partnerships is to protect and provide better
sustained nesting habitat, more clearly marked off-limits areas
to protect that birds and their habitat during this critical life
stage, and increase our understanding of nesting dynamics on
this important environment within ANERR.
Fresh Start, continued from page 6
City ________________________________________State__________Zip ____________
Address __________________________________________________________________
Name _________________________________________________­­__________________
 Student@$5/yr  Family@$15/yr  Individual@$10/yr  Commercial@$25/yr  Other Donation@$________________
 Corporate@$250/yr
 Lifetime@$250
Join the Friends of the Reserve, a non-profit organization
providing support to the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research
Reserve. Be a part of a group of people directly involved with the
Reserve’s research, stewardship and education programs. To join,
complete and mail this form, along with your check to: Friends of
the Reserve, P. O. Box 931, Apalachicola, FL 32329.
Follow the Reserve at Facebook.com/
ApalachicolaNationalEstuarineResearchReserve
The Reserve was established in September 1979 as a cooperative
effort between Franklin County, the State of Florida and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is
administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The Reserve’s
purpose is to support research relating to the Apalachicola River & Bay estuarine
system, disseminate research information, educate the public about estuarine
processes, and encourage resource protection. Visit the Reserve
online at apalachicolareserve.com, nerrs.noaa.gov/Apalachicola/
welcome.html, or dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/apalachicola/
Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve
108 Island Drive • Eastpoint, FL 32328
850.670.7700 FAX 850.670.4837
One way that ecologists can look at community-wide data is
by generating statistics that group communities by how similar
they are. One of the best ways to visualize the results is to place
them into a “cluster” which essentially is like a family tree.
Communities that are most similar, in other words, have similar
species in similar proportions, will be on the same branch,
whereas those that differ will be on separate branches. So now
we can visually make an assessment of who is where, and when,
by simply looking at clusters for all of our sampling locations
(Figure 1) at different times of year (Figure 3). Before reading
further, put on your ecologist’s hat and assess the data from
Figures 1 and 3. Once you think you’ve got it, come back and
see if your answer matches the one below.
One of first things we can see when looking at Figure 3 is the
commonality of the southern bay sites: Pilot’s Cove, Nick’s Hole,
and the east end of the State Park. Regardless of the time of
year, these sites tend to have their own main branch. They tend
to have similar species in similar proportions year-round. What
about the remaining seven locations? For winter and spring, the
remaining stations tend to group together with the exception
of the Mid-Bay East and Mid-Bay West stations. However, by
summer it becomes evident that the East Bay stations have
their own branch, and by fall, there are three relatively distinct
communities in Apalachicola Bay: the nekton community of East
Bay, the nekton community residing behind the barrier islands,
and then the community in-between. So just from a few rather
simple visual aids we can learn quite a bit about the activities of
our young-of-the-year fishes, shrimps, and crabs. Newly born
species enter the bay during the winter, spring, and most of the
summer months, and are somewhat spread out all over (with the
exception of the barrier island habitat), but as time goes on, each
species tends to settle out into its preferred habitat to form three
distinct ecological communities in Apalachicola Bay. By late fall
and early winter, it’s time for those individuals from an older yearclass to move out of the bay as adults to start the cycle all over
again. So as you can now see, even though things start to slow
down on land, things are already in motion under water, and in
reality, it never really slows down, it just switches gears.
Email Address_____________________________________________________________
are still limited. Apalachicola Bay supports such a vast quantity of
organisms that the demand they create for these limited resources
could be unsustainable if they all were present in the same place
at the same time. For the nekton communities in Apalachicola
Bay, there is potential that what ecologists call resource
partitioning may be an effective ecological strategy – that is, there
may be enough room for everyone to get by if everyone didn’t
1) show up at the same time, and 2) end up in the same place
i.e., habitat. We’ve already talked about the time factor: different
populations of nekton arrive in the bay at different times and
some populations split their time of arrival each year into multiple
events. How can we investigate space?