Conservation Efforts in the Pascagoula Watershed

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Conservation Efforts in the Pascagoula Watershed

• SME Summer 2007 Graduate Field Course
• Dr. Sherry Herron
• Sarah Wheeless, TABSC 504/L (4 hrs)

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The Pascagoula Watershed

• 1976 Mississippi Legislature authorized 13.5
  million in general obligation bonds and the
  Conservancy served as the middle man for
  transferring title to 32,000 acres (Schueler,
  1980).
• 1988 Save the Pascagoula successfully protected
  a large area of the river from dredging.
• 2003 Mississippi Public Television partnered with
  The Nature Conservancy to produce the television
  program The Singing River Rhythms of Nature
  The Pascagoula River Story.
• 2004 Audubon Mississippi established the
  Pascagoula River Audubon Center.
• The National Audubon Society has joined the
  effort, and now the Pascagoula runs mostly wild
  through about 50,000 protected acres along 50
  miles of the river's 81-mile route. (Note
  however, that the Pascagoulas tributaries
  originate up to twice that distance away.) The
  Nature Conservancy now heads the Pascagoula River
  Basin Alliance to promote the ecological,
  economic, and cultural health of this watershed.

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Includes two long weekend field trips with
canoeing in July 1. upper Pine savanna
ecosystemupper tributaries in the Chickasawhay
Ranger District of the DeSoto National Forest
2. lower Coastal Marsh ecosystemnear the
mouth of the Pascagoula River on the coast of the
Gulf of Mexico
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First meeting

• Overview of geographical region (Map work)
• Overview of flora and fauna
• Informal presentations
• Mark and recapture methods
• Journaling methods
• Survey methods
• Water quality temp, DO, pH, salinity,
  alkalinity, macroinvertebrates
• Land cover
• GPS
• Field trip logistics
• Itinerary
• Equipment, supplies, clothes

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Assessment

• Field notes in Field notebook
• Journal entries
• Species accounts
• Personal reflections
• Focus on one plant, one animal, and one invasive
  species for each field trip
• Data collection (water quality, land cover)
• Individually written scientific report
• Group presentation
• Report on endangered species
• What is its life history
• What conservation methods are being used?
• Individual presentation

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2nd meeting

• Overview
• How to interpret data
• Itinerary

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Mississippi Geology

• MS is dominated by the MS Embaymentwhere the MS
  River runs - a deep trough in the continent where
  a new ocean once tried to form (AKA an aulacogen
  "aw-LACK-o-gen"). As sea level changed over
  geologic time, sediments filled in the trough,
  and the trough sagged under the weight. Thus the
  rocks that line the MS Embayment are bent
  downward in its midsection and exposed along its
  edges, older the farther east you go.
• There are only two deposits not related to the
  embayment along the Gulf coast, where sandbars
  and lagoons are regularly impacted by hurricanes,
  and in the extreme northeast where a tiny edge is
  exposed of the continental platform deposits that
  dominate the Midwest.

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Pascagoula River Watershed
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Identify Geology on Map

• Headwaters originate in the Eocene-age
  Buhrstone/Lime Hills. With rocky substrates
  composed of resistant claystone and sandstone,
  these streams are characterized by high
  gradients. Tributaries then cut through the
  unique Eocene-age Yazoo Clay of the Jackson
  Prairie and yield fossils of prehistoric whales
  (Basilosaurus cetoides and Zygorhiza kochii),
  oysters, and other extinct species (Chapman,
  Griffith, Omernik, Comstock, Beiser, and Johnson,
  D., 2004)

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Eocene Epoch

• means "dawn of the recent
• between 55 mya and 34 mya
• Development of grasses
• mammals took over the large-animal niches
  previously held by the dinosaurs practically all
  of the modern eutherian (truly warm-blooded)
  mammal orders arose early in the Eocene
• warm climate
• significant vulcanism present in the western U.S.
  and central Mexico
• High sea levels much of the southeastern U. S.
  was submerged
• Europe separated from Asia by a narrow strait
• Huge meteorite impacts occurred Russia (100km),
  Canada (28 km), and several others

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Upper Pine Savanna and Bogs
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Endangered animals

• Birds, bats, turtles

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Lower Coastal Marsh
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Endangered Animals
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Wetland Hardwoods

• Grow along river and stream beds
• Sweet Gum Trees (Liquidambar styraciflua)
• Will grow in standing water
• Red Maple (Acer rubrum)

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Sweet Gum Liquidambar styraciflua
Fruit is a hard birball convered with spikes
and containing 1 or 2 seeds
Alternate arrangement
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Red Maple Acer rubrum
Opposite leaf arrangement
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Upland Hardwoods

• Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)
• Water Oak (Quercus nigra)
• Post Oak (Quercus stellata)

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Live Oak Quercus virginiana
Long life span Evergreen Able to withstand salt
sea air and hurricane force winds
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Water Oak Quercus nigra
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Post Oak Quercus stellata
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Magnolia

• Magnolia grandiflora
• Evergreen
• Large, white to cream flower
• Large, elliptic, glossy, dark green leaves
• Height 65-90 (18-27 m)

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Two Types of Cypress

Pond Cypress
Bald Cypress
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Cypress

• Conifer Taxodiaceae Family
• Related closely only to California redwood
• Resistant to decay

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Pond CypressTaxodium ascendens

• Smaller tree
• Trunk smaller
• Leaves smaller
• Cones Not over 2.5 cm diameter
• Seeds dispersed by water
• Grows wetlands which are in silt-poor blackwater
  rivers and ponds low-nutrient availability, slow
  or stagnant water

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Bald CypressTaxodium distichum

• Larger tree 30-45m tall
• Trunk diameter 3m
• Leaves spirally arranged, 1-2 cm long and 1-2 mm
  broad
• Loses leaves in winter
• Cones green and mature gray-brown
• Seeds dispersed by water
• Grows riverside wetlands which are subject to
  flooding by silt-rich brownwater rivers high
  nutrient availability, moderate water flow

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Knees of Trees

• No one knows their function
• Speculation Provide oxygen to roots or
  structural support and stabilization

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Conservation Methods

• Mark and Recapture
• Petersen method
• Schnabel method
• Schumacher method
• M individuals originally marked
• C sample size at time of recapture
• R marked individual at recapture
• N estimate of population abundance ( present at
  time of initial marking assuming no mortality,
  emigration, immigration, or recruitment)

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Petersen Method

• NMC/R
• May be used for a single marking and recapture
• Biased
• All methods assume that
• all members of the population retain their
  identity
• are properly recognized and counted when captured
• Marked and unmarked individuals are
  proportionally represented

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Schnabel and Schumacher

• Schnabel Method
• Nsum of MC values/sum of R values
• Schumacher Method
• Nsum of M2C values/sum of MR values
• Used for multiple marking and recapture periods
• Not biased
• error ( animals estimated/ animals
  present)100

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How Many Fish are in that Pond?

• White beans
• Brown beans
• Mark and recapture!

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Journaling
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GLOBE Protocols

• Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the
  Environment (GLOBE) Program
• an interagency program funded by NASA, NSF,
  supported by the U.S. Department of State
• GLOBE is a partnership between the US and over
  100 countries
• GLOBE database.

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GLOBE Hydrology Protocols

• Water Quality
• Temperature
• pH
• Turbidity
• DO
• Salinity
• Alkalinity
• Macroinvertebrates
• GPS
• Land cover

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Land cover materials

• 50 Meter Tape
• Slap Ruler
• Device used for marking square meters
• Densiometer
• Device used for determining the percentage of
  canopy closure in a wooded environment
• Data Recording Sheets
• GPS unit

Betsy Sullivan
Abigail Warden
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Survey Protocol

• Task 1 Identify compass point (N, E, S, W) to
  lay out 10 m

Messilina, Kate, Betsy, John, Jennifer

• Task 2 From center point, survey a 1 m2 in each
  quadrant.
• Helps to identify herb layer (ground cover
  plants)

Task 3 Measure 2 m radius from center point and
identified herbs/shrubs under 1m in height that
were not seen in 1m2.
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2nd Class Meeting
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Identify on map

• Coastal marshes supported by Quaternary-age sands
  and clays surround the mouth of the Pascagoula.
  Pine plantations and open savannas mark this
  region. A stretch of barrier islands in the Gulf
  of Mexico protects the Pascagoula from the open
  sea.

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Marsh Grasses

• Provide a nursery ground for many larval
  organisms
• Habitat for epiphytic biota and epizoic orgaisms
• Provide a substrate for sediment collection
• Reduces the velocity of currents
• Spartina
• Juncus