Yellow-billed loon monitoring protocol for the Arctic Network: Protocol narrative version 1.0

Flamme, Melanie; Schmidt, Joshua; Mizel, Jeremy; Miller, Scott

The National Park Service (NPS) has developed a long-term ecological monitoring program known as “Vital Signs Monitoring” to provide the minimum infrastructure and enable more than 270 national park units, organized into 32 networks nationwide, to identify and implement long-term monitoring of their highest-priority indicators of natural resource condition. The Vital Signs Monitoring Program is a major component of the National Park Service’s strategy to improve park management through greater reliance on scientific information. This protocol details the justification and procedures for Yellow-billed Loon monitoring (YBLO) (Gavia adamsii), a Vital Sign selected by the Arctic Network (ARCN). The ARCN includes five park units in northern Alaska: Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (BELA), Cape Krusenstern National Monument (CAKR), Noatak National Preserve (NOAT), Kobuk Valley National Park (KOVA), and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (GAAR) (Figure 1). Preserving the condition of park resources unimpaired in perpetuity, including migratory birds and their habitats, is the fundamental management objective of the NPS. This management objective to “maintain unimpaired” captures the essence of the NPS mission and forms the foundation of the NPS long-term ecological monitoring program. The purpose of the Yellow-billed Loon monitoring protocol is to collect and analyze data and report information that will help park management assess the status of and/or maintain or improve the ecological condition of this resource. Because Yellow-billed Loons are large-bodied, long-lived and return to the same breeding sites each year, they are ideal for monitoring long-term population trends in lake occupancy, habitat use and distribution. Yellow-billed Loons utilize both freshwater and marine environments, may be indicators of water quality, and provide insight into the movement of marine-derived nutrients and shifts in riparian or coastal communities in BELA and CAKR. As a top-trophic level predators in freshwater ecosystems, Yellow-billed Loons can be an indicator species useful for representing the status of the freshwater waterbird community. The primary monitoring objective of the ARCN Yellow-billed Loon monitoring protocol is to: 1. Biennially estimate status and trends in distribution, occupancy, and habitat use of Yellow-billed Loons in freshwater subarctic lakes during the breeding season in BELA and CAKR. Approximately 25% of the Alaskan Yellow-billed Loon population occurs in and around CAKR and BELA in ARCN. The species’ summer range includes portions of both of these parklands as well as areas adjacent to them on the Seward Peninsula and Cape Krusenstern and the Kotzebue lowlands. Prior to 2005, population estimates and distribution data of Yellow-billed Loons in these NPS units were poorly documented. In 2005, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) designed new survey methods to improve detections of Yellow-billed Loons and nests. Their methods developed specific lake-circling techniques and random plots targeting Yellow-billed habitat preferences to optimize detections and improve population estimates (Stehn et al. 2005; Mallek et al. 2006). In 2009, the National Park Service (NPS) ARCN began conducting aerial long-term monitoring of Yellow-billed Loons in BELA and CAKR using small, tandem aircraft in which the observer is seated behind the pilot. These planes fly lower, more slowly and make tighter circles around lake edges than other larger aerial survey aircraft (e.g. C185, Kodiak, C2016, etc.) to improve detections. In 2011, ARCN modified the aerial survey methods again to improve occupancy estimates by using two, tandem aircraft to conduct simultaneous repeated (duplicate) surveys of all plots to generate an estimate of detection probability.

Yellow-billed loon monitoring protocol for the Arctic Network: Protocol narrative version 1.0

Series

See also

Collections