Marsh thriller: MSU consultants research elusive chicken to correctly handle land – Every day Chief

By Meg Henderson

MSU Office of Public Affairs

STARKVILLE —Deep within the tough terrain of the Gulf Coast excessive marsh lives a tiny, darkish and white-speckled chicken referred to as the black rail. These elusive birds that make their properties close to muddy waters and amongst sharp-bladed grasses are simpler to listen to than see. Yet to catch their distinct sound “kick-ee-kerr” is a uncommon expertise.

Black rails, together with excessive marsh-dwelling yellow rails and mottled geese, are on the coronary heart of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Firebird venture, a coastal conservation initiative co-led by Mississippi State University scientist Mark Woodrey.

Woodrey, an avian ecologist within the college’s Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, has spent years finding out coastal wetlands and secretive marsh birds. The idea of the research started to take root when Woodrey, primarily based at MSU’s Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi, obtained calls from land managers from throughout the Gulf Coast.

“A lot of people were worried that they could no longer use prescribed burns in these high marsh areas because the black rail was being considered for listing as a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” Woodrey stated. “I realized there was a lot of misinformation circulating and little to no scientific data to inform stakeholders.”

Co-principal investigator and former MSU postdoctoral researcher Auriel Fournier—additionally director of the Forbes Biological Station with the Illinois Natural History Survey—assembled a group with Woodrey. After making use of for a $3.9 million grant for a five-year research, the venture, which started in 2020 and spans the Gulf Coast from Tampa Bay, Florida to the Laguna Madre of Texas, encompasses a group of 33 people from six tutorial establishments; conservation nonprofits similar to Ducks Unlimited, Audubon Delta and Tall Timbers Research Station; and federal businesses together with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S Geological Survey and NOAA.

The group merged their mixed experience in biology, ecology, local weather science and modeling to provide information that will reply these substantial conservation issues and information administration practices.

“Throughout the study, we’ve used the concept of adaptive management as our North Star,” Woodrey stated. “This is a quantitative, rigorous approach to making conservation-based land management decisions, examining the process and continuing to research and modify recommendations according to the latest data.”

High marsh, a singular coastal tidal habitat which floods occasionally, is home to many endangered plant species and is favored by black and yellow rails and mottled geese. The Gulf of Mexico is home to 62% of the tidal marshes within the U.S.

“Texas and Florida have solid data on black rails, so we know that they nest there, but there is very little actual data on the birds in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama,” stated Woodrey, who is also an affiliate analysis professor in MSU’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture.

To assist the group find sampling websites in these uncharted areas, Woodrey turned to colleague Kristine Evans, affiliate professor of conservation biology in MSU’s wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture division. Evans and USGS workers used distant sensing expertise to create maps of excessive marsh areas alongside the Gulf Coast the place discipline research can be performed.

Each state has a fieldwork group. MSU analysis affiliate Blake Lamb coordinates the Mississippi-Alabama group, main survey efforts and coaching new technicians on figuring out birds and exhibiting the group tips on how to conduct discipline research.

“During the breeding season—mid-March through July—we conduct call-broadcast surveys. We play their calls, and listen for them to call back,” Lamb stated. “We also survey during the winter to count migratory birds, but we use different methods.”

Another research element addresses managers’ issues that shifting climate patterns attributable to local weather change constrain their capability to conduct prescribed fires. These burns might take place solely when winds blow from the north—sending particulate matter out to the Gulf, away from populated areas. This a part of the analysis, printed in Remote Sensing and Environment and Geocarto International, discovered that climate patterns haven’t modified considerably in recent years.

From the start, stakeholders have performed a important position within the research.

“I’ve always worked with end-users and try to involve them upfront,” Woodrey stated. “They urged us to do the study because data-informed management practices for these habitats didn’t exist.”

This spring, Woodrey will meet with NOAA representatives and land managers for a overview of the group’s progress. The researchers are hopeful the venture will be expanded previous the 2025 completion date.

“Our stakeholders need longer-term data sets to make the most informed decisions,” Woodrey stated. “We’d like to continue collecting data from field studies, and we want to study the impact of coastal squeeze on these marsh-dwelling birds. As sea levels rise on one end and human development expands upslope, existing marsh areas are shrinking. We also plan to add a social science component to study people’s perceptions on prescribed fire and develop extension materials to educate end-users.”

“In many ecosystems, fire is natural and needed, and in the past, lightning strikes would do the job,” Lamb added. “Today, we have to manage fire in a way that doesn’t affect civilization, and the more data and better data we have, the more effectively we can do that.”

To study extra concerning the NOAA Firebird venture, go to https://noaafirebird.home.blog. To study extra concerning the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, go to www.mafes.msstate.edu.