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November 2013 Activity Highlights
Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
La Crosse, Wisconsin

Topics covered in the November activity report.

• Awards
• News Media
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
• Common Loons and Avian Botulism
• Habitat Quality and Common Loon Breeding Range Shift
• Acronyms

Awards

• Christine Custer (UMESC) was awarded ‘Outstanding Regional Chapter Member’ at the 2013 annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry North America (SETAC) in Nashville, TN.  The award is presented annually to a Regional Chapter member of SETAC who has consistently contributed to the development or functioning of the Society at the Regional Chapter Level.  The announcement is available at http://www.setac.org/resource/resmgr/media/outstanding-members.pdf.

News Media

• Christine Custer (UMESC) was interviewed by Maureen McCollum (Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse, WI) regarding her recent publication on Exposure and Effects of Perfluoroalkyl Substances in Tree Swallows Nesting in Minnesota and Wisconsin, USA.  The segment was aired on Friday Nov 1 and was from a recent USGS Press release (Oct. 23).  The news article is available online, at http://news.wpr.org/post/report-nonstick-chemicals-may-be-affecting-birds-along-mississippi-river.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Landscape Conservation Cooperative

• Ken Lubinski and Jack Waide (UMESC) met with Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) representatives Gwen White, Mike Olson, and Josh Eash, to discuss the benefits of holding a Spring or Summer workshop in 2014 to review planning activities of the USGS Large River Initiative, LCC interests on floodplain connectivity, and the function of Floodplain Science Network.  Lubinski and White will continue planning the agenda for the workshop, which will bring scientists and managers together to discuss priority opportunities for conducting floodplain science.

Common Loons and Avian Botulism

• Kevin Kenow (UMESC) is a coauthor on a presentation titled, “Drag Coefficients of Drifting Waterbirds” given by Karl von Ellenrieder (Florida Atlantic University) at the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Physics Association Division of Fluid Dynamics, November 24 in Pittsburgh, PA.  The presentation reported on towing tank experiments to determine drag coefficients of waterbirds associated with water currents and wind at varying levels of submergence.  Results of this work are being incorporated into a probabilistic source tracking model to estimate the origin of bird carcasses, associated with type-E botulism mortality in Lake Michigan, deposited at a given beach location.  This research is part of GLRI Template 73 - Avian Botulism in Distressed Great Lakes Environments.  Link to abstract at http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD13/Event/204308

Habitat Quality and Common Loon Breeding Range Shift

• Kevin Kenow, Tim Fox (UMESC), Paul Garrison and Michael Meyer (WI DNR) published the results from a study of changes in habitat quality within the former breeding range of the Common Loon in Wisconsin.  The loon’s breeding range has shifted northward, from southern range limits that as recent as 100-150 years ago extended throughout Wisconsin.  A number of factors have likely contributed to the decreased appeal of southern Wisconsin lakes to breeding Common Loons, including changes to water quality, altered trophic status resulting from nutrient enrichment, and reductions in suitable nesting habitat stemming from shoreline development, and altered water levels.  Increased nutrient and sediment inputs from agricultural and developed areas likely contributed to a reduction in habitat quality.  Implications for managing the expansion of breeding Common Loons back into the historic breeding range are addressed.

Acronyms

DNR – Department of Natural Resources
GLRI – Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
LCC – Landscape Conservation Cooperative
SETAC – Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
UMESC – Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
USGS – U.S. Geological Survey

URL: http://umesc.usgs.gov/outreach/highlights/2013_nov_umesc_highlights.html
Page Contact Information: Contacting the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Page Last Modified: November 16, 2012