Determining what environmental features affect waterbird diversity on the Great Miami River

Determining what environmental features affect waterbird diversity on the Great Miami River

Presenter(s)

Hannah Marie Scharf

Description

The habitat of the Great Miami River is highly disturbed as it enters the city of Dayton, yet it still attracts many species of birds. These include Anseriformes, which are waterfowl, Charadriiformes, which contain shorebirds and gulls, Pelecaniformes, which contain herons, Suliformes which contain cormorants, and Podicipediformes, which are the grebes. This study seeks to determine which segments of the Great Miami River attract the most and the least numbers and species of waterbirds during the fall migration, and what environmental characteristics set these segments apart. To accomplish this, we divided a four mile segment of the Great Miami River into tenth of a mile intervals, spanning from the confluence of the Great Miami River with the Mad River downstream to the Tait Station low dam. For each interval we counted and identified every bird, in addition to recording environmental features of interest. After identifying the two best and the two worst intervals, we evaluated the habitat with the Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI) and plan to further investigate these areas with additional analyses. By identifying and characterizing these areas of the Great Miami River, sections of the river can be better managed to encourage greater species diversity and numbers of waterbirds.

Publication Date

4-18-2018

Project Designation

Independent Research

Primary Advisor

Jeffrey L. Kavanaugh

Primary Advisor's Department

Biology

Keywords

Stander Symposium project

Determining what environmental features affect waterbird diversity on the Great Miami River

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