Tidal wetlands after Hurricane Sandy: baseline restoration assessment
and future conservation planning Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research
Program (SHARP) project is a collaborative effort to assess risks and
set response priorities for tidal-marsh dependent bird species from
Virginia to maritime Canada.
With more than 1,500 sampling sites
for estimating bird abundance and plant community composition, 22
sampling sites for estimating species fecundity and survival, and 651
sampling points for measuring salt marsh elevation, the Saltmarsh
Habitat and Avian Research Program is an unprecedented undertaking to
characterize threats to tidal-marsh dependent bird species along the
entire mid-Atlantic coastline.
Originally initiated in 2011 by a
team of scientists looking to align efforts towards understanding
threats to salt marsh birds across the region SHARP had enough data in
hand to develop a clear snapshot of tidal marshes before the Hurricane
Sandy struck the coast in 2012, and a baseline for understanding future
impacts of climate change to these systems.
Though the team had
used all of their initial funding to carry out the two-year
data-collection effort, money from the National Science Foundation came
through to enable another survey in 2013, and then Department of the
Interior Hurricane Sandy Funding coordinated by the North Atlantic LCC
and Fish and Wildlife Service Divisions of Migratory Birds and Refuges
came through to support additional field seasons through 2016.
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