No description available.

Issued also as thesis, University of Michigan. / Bibliography: p. 203-210.

Thesis (M. Env. Sc.)--University of Adelaide, Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-134).

Issued also as thesis, University of Michigan. / Bibliography: p. 203-210.

Scotts Creek, located in northern Santa Cruz County, maintains the southernmost persistent population of Central California Coast (CCC) Coho Salmon (endangered) in addition to CCC steelhead (threatened). Fisheries biologists believe overwinter mortality due to lack of refuge habitat is the primary factor limiting salmonid production. Instream rearing habitat may also be limiting, especially during drought years. The legacy effects of historic land use practices, including dredging, wood removal, and the construction of levees, continued to limit refuge and rearing opportunities. A restoration project was implemented to improve refuge and rearing opportunities for salmonids along lower Scotts Creek by removing portions of the deteriorating levee, grading new connections with existing off-channel features, enhancing tributary confluences, constructing alcove habitat features at the margins of the stream channel, and constructing large wood complexes (LWCs) instream. Novel restoration techniques were employed on an experimental basis. Whole in-situ alder trees were pushed into the stream channel with their root systems left partially intact to establish living key pieces. Individual log, boulder, and rootwad LWC components were attached together with couplers that permitted some freedom of independent movement among the individual components. LWCs were braced against live, standing trees and stabilized with boulder ballasts placed on the streambed, which eliminated excavation of the streambed/banks and the need to dewater or divert the stream during construction. Project performance, changes to physical habitat characteristics, and changes to stream morphology associated with implementation were monitored using habitat assessment methods derived from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) salmonid habitat survey protocol (Flosi et al. 2010), and topographic survey techniques and data analysis adapted from Columbia Habitat Monitoring Protocol (Bouwes et al. 2011). Preliminary results indicated that LWCs remained stable and functional. In addition, implementation of the restoration project increased pool frequency, low-flow pool volume, instream cover, frequency of instream, alcove, and off-channel refuge habitat features, and frequency of points of connectivity with the floodplain. Long-term monitoring will be required to determine the survivorship, decay rates, and overall persistence of alder recruits.

An increasing number of habitats are affected by anthropogenic noise pollution, which is often louder, has a different frequency emphasis, and may occur over a different temporal scale, than natural noise. An increasing number of studies indicate that acoustically-communicating animals in such areas can modify their vocalizations in order to make themselves heard over the noise, but many questions still remain, including: How taxonomically widespread is vocal flexibility in response to anthropogenic noise, and do all vocally flexible species employ the same mechanisms to escape acoustic masking? Are there fitness repercussions for living, communicating, and breeding in noisy habitats? and, can particular habitat features be used to predict environmental noise levels and sound propagation characteristics? Here, I present data collected from the breeding territories of eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis ) to address each of these questions. My results add another species to the list of those who are able to avoid acoustic masking by modifying temporal and spectral traits of vocalizations. I also show that anthropogenic noise is associated with changes in several eastern bluebird breeding parameters. Finally, I demonstrate that both anthropogenic noise levels and sound propagation traits can be predicted by particular habitat characteristics.

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No description available.

No description available.

Oyster shell for native oyster reef restoration is scarce in Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries (Chapter 1). Consequently, alternative substrates merit consideration in oyster restoration. This dissertation examines the suitability of shell alternatives, including granite, concrete, limestone marl, concrete modules and reefballs with reef surveys and experiments in the Rappahannock and Lynnhaven Rivers of Chesapeake Bay. Oyster recruitment, growth, survival, density, biomass, condition, and disease stress, as well as reef accretion and persistence, were measured. In the Lynnhaven River, intertidal riprap had a mean density of 978 oysters m-2 (165 g AFDM m-2) and peak densities > 2000 oysters m-2 (Chapter 2), which are among the highest abundances on alternative reefs, shell or otherwise. Riprap reefs supported a robust population size structure, signifying consistent annual recruitment and reef sustainability. Riprap age (older > younger) and location influenced reef performance; granite and concrete both supported dense oyster-mussel assemblages. In 2005 and 2007, oyster and mussel population structure, density and biomass were quantified on a novel, subtidal concrete modular reef deployed in 2000 in the Rappahannock River (Chapter 3). The reef was not seeded or harvested. Densities (m-2 river bottom) were very high for oysters (2005: 991 m-2; 2007: 2191 m-2) and mussels (2005: 8433 m-2; 2007: 6984 m-2) and comparable to the highest densities on shell reefs. An adjoining 0.44 ha array of concrete reefs (Steamer Rock) was deployed in 1994 and sampled in 2006. These reefs contained > 4 million oysters and > 30 million mussels. Oysters from both reef systems had low disease prevalence and intensity. In a field experiment (Chapter 4), treatments simulating oyster habitat were placed at three intertidal sites in Long Creek of the Lynnhaven River. Granite had highest oyster recruitment and abundance (density > 1500 m-2 and biomass > 200 g AFDM m-2). Many reefs reached a mature state after two years. By Year 3, some reefs had accreted 15-20 L of shell m-2 river bottom, and contained three year classes; some treatments had > 30 % of live oysters growing on other oysters. Large oysters (> 95 mm shell height) had lower intensities of Dermo infection than smaller (60-90 mm) oysters. These patterns indicate that oyster disease tolerance has developed in these high-salinity waters, and highlight the importance of substrate type and reef location in ecological oyster reef restoration. In summer 2006, nine reefs were constructed at two shoreline sites in the Lynnhaven River (Chapter 5), three each of oyster shell (OS), riprap (RR), and concrete modules (CM). Six reefballs were placed at each site, half pre-seeded with hatchery-reared oysters. Finally, in situ setting of triploid oyster larvae on OS, RR and CM reefs was attempted. After 2.5 yrs, all reefs had high oyster density and biomass (unseeded: 150-1200 m -2, 150-600 g AFDM m-2; seeded: 30-1800 oysters m -2), and sustainable accretion rates (8-15 L m-2 yr -1); diploid and triploid oysters had light Dermo infections. Consequently, alternative substrates can serve as effective oyster reefs under diverse conditions in subtidal and intertidal environments of Chesapeake Bay.