April 6, 2012
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EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — "Snowbirds" is a nickname that popularly describes northerners who enjoy the warmth of winters in Florida. The same holds true for a diversity of birds that migrate to Florida and places further south. These real snowbirds, such as Snowy and Piping Plovers, are benefitting from ERDC team members' environmental recommendations for coastal military installations.
Selected because of the team's unique approach, ERDC-EL now leads the DOD Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program in developing an integrated climate change and threatened bird population model system to project habitat and population viability on occupied shorelines, as well as mitigate operational risks in the face of climate change.
Team members chosen for the highly competitive program are Research Physical Scientist Dr. Igor Linkov, Research Wildlife Biologist Dr. Richard Fischer and the University of Florida's (UF) Dr. Matteo Convertino, assisted by other UF scientists, State University of New York#&151;Stony Brook, and Applied Biomathematics Inc.
Florida coastlines offer breeding and wintering habitat for Snowy Plovers, but human disturbances affect the breeding activity of these small and increasingly rare birds. EL recommendations can be used to improve conditions before the Gulf Coast population becomes federally threatened as it is now in California.
Linkov pointed out that even though both Eglin and Tyndall Air Force bases (AFB) in Florida constitute a very small proportion of the available coastal habitat, shoreline-dependent bird data strongly illustrates their seasonal importance for birds.
"This project is designed to integrate multi-scale climate, land use and ecosystem information into a systematic tool set to explore how climate variability and change effects may affect habitat and population dynamics for Snowy Plover, Piping Plover, and Red Knot on these installations and the entire Gulf Coast of Florida," Linkov said.
"The ERDC team proposed a unique approach combining climate change, hydrologic and ecological models with advanced decision-analytical tools to support needs of Eglin AFB natural resource managers."
Actions and Results
The current and final phase of the project includes assessing management alternatives to sustain military operations at the base while also protecting and conserving endangered species.
With the three-year project ending in June, Linkov said, "Recommendations will result in actionable items that Eglin AFB can implement, with the goal of finding the best course of action for installation managers, allowing mission sustainment, such as training, and conservation efforts"
"The project also resulted in unique methodology of modeling integrated with decision analysis that is currently being further developed in a center-directed research project led by EL's Dr. Todd Bridges. Results of the project will be of significant importance for installation managers. They have already considered results of this study in developing a beach nourishment strategy. Yearly meetings were organized by researcher and military stakeholders at Eglin AFB. The project also provided much needed understanding of climate change influences on population dynamics of several bird species we studied," Linkov said.
"Climate change, such as sea-level rise and altered weather patterns, is expected to significantly alter low-lying coastal and intertidal areas, which provide significant seasonal habitats for a variety of shoreline-dependent organisms. This study shows that the military would like to do its best to protect natural resources while sustaining mission readiness."