Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Maine
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Maine Project


Hydrological assessment of Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge Impoundments and vegetation and wildlife response to impoundment management

June 2000 - December 2004


Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • Cooperative Research Unit Program
  • University of Maine

We assessed changes in vegetative structure of 49 impoundments at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge (MNWR), Maine, USA, between the periods 1984-1985 to 2002 with a multivariate, adaptive approach that may be useful in a variety of wetland and other habitat management situations. We used Mahalanobis Distance (MD) analysis to classify the refuge’s wetlands as poor or good waterbird habitat based on 5 variables (i.e., percent emergent vegetation, percent shrub, percent open water, relative richness of vegetative types, and an interspersion juxtaposition index that measures adjacency of vegetation patches). Mahalanobis Distance is a multivariate statistic that examines whether a particular data point is an outlier or a member of a data cluster while accounting for correlations among inputs. For each wetland, we used MD analysis to quantify a distance from a reference condition defined a priori by habitat conditions measured in MNWR wetlands used by waterbirds. Twenty-five wetlands declined in quality between the two periods, whereas 23 wetlands improved. We identified specific wetland characteristics that may be modified to improve habitat conditions for waterbirds. The MD analysis seems ideal for instituting an adaptive wetland management approach because metrics can be easily added or removed, ranges of target habitat conditions can be defined by field-collected data, and the analysis can identify priorities for single or multiple management objectives.

Research Publications Publication Date
Hierl, L., C. S. Loftin, J. R. Longcore, D. G. McAuley, and D. Urban. 2007. A Multivariate Assessment of Changes in Wetland Habitat Conditions for Waterbirds at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Maine, USA. Wetlands 27(1): 141-152. January 2007
Technical Publications Publication Date
Hierl, L., C.S. Loftin, J. Longcore, and D. McAuley. 2003. A multivariate assessment of wetland habitat conditions in Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Maine. Final project report for RWO 43 Hydrological assessment of Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge Impoundments, 163 pp. December 2003
Presentations Presentation Date
Hierl, L., C. Loftin, J. Longcore and D. Urban. 2006. A multivariate assessment of changes in wetland habitat for waterbirds at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Maine, USA. 21st Annual Symposium of the United States regional Chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecologists, 28 March-1 April, San Diego, CA. March 2006
Hierl, L., C.S. Loftin, J.R. Longcore, D.G. McAuley, and D. Urban. A Multivariate Assessment of Changes in Wetland Habitat Conditions for Waterbirds at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Maine, USA. Presentation at the New England Chapter of The Wildlife Society, Annual Workshop, 28 October 2005, Hadley, MA. October 2005