Edge of the Lake Seminar Series

 

The Birds and the Bugs: A method for setting ecological criteria using a probabilistic approach

 

Open to the Public

 

Friday, December 5, 2003

10:30 – 11:30 a.m.

UW-Green Bay campus, Mary Ann Cofrin Hall, Room 223

(For a map, please see www.uwgb.edu/maps )

 

Trefor Reynoldson, Environment Canada, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia

 

Probabilistic models have been used in marine and freshwater science since the mid 1970s. Their first large scale use was in the United Kingdom as the basis of a national programme for assessing the condition of the quality of streams through quincennial surveys of over 6000 sites. The purpose of these models is to develop a method for predicting what species are likely to occur based on local habitat conditions. The models are based on a large array of reference sites, reflecting background or best available conditions, and examination of patterns in the community assemblages. Correlative matching of the biological pattern with patterns in habitat attributes is then done to develop a probabilistic model of taxon occurrence. These predictions can then be used to establish ecological criteria for a site based on the occurrence of species or the divergence of an assemblage of species from the expected assemblage. The robustness of this approach will be demonstrated from the original models developed in the UK for stream invertebrates, for benthic invertebrates in Green Bay Wisconsin based on Great Lakes reference sites, for bird assemblages in Nova Scotia, and for stream communities in Wisconsin .

For more information contact Kim McKeefry, (920) 465-2798, or email Vicky Harris.

 

Co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
and the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewage District

 

 

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all audio, images and video used with permission

last updated 25 November 2003

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/communications/news_releases/2003/EdgeofLake--BirdsNBugs.html