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Do rural impoundments in coastal Bay of Fundy, Canada sustain adequate habitat for wildlife?

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Abstract

In Canada and elsewhere in North America, impoundments are created in compensation for historic wetland loss and for habitat loss due to development projects, but these new sites are infrequently evaluated to determine how effectively they function. The Cumberland Marsh Region (CMR), located at the head of the Bay of Fundy, Canada, is of importance to migratory birds and has been subject to 300+ years of anthropogenic alteration, including impoundment creation on diked and drained tidal marsh in the last five decades. Wetland managers have noticed a pervasive decline in impoundment productivity leading to reduced waterbird usage (senescence). To understand factors that promote senescence, we analyzed abiotic and biotic proxies in sediment archives from six freshwater impoundments in two coastal watersheds to assess spatial trends across the CMR within recent decades. Our results demonstrate that impoundment productivity is driven by autochthonous nutrient sources (C/N between 7.7 and 14.4), but biogeochemical conditions can be highly variable among impoundments despite their proximity. Biogeochemical variation among top-of-core sediment samples from each impoundment was generally minimal, and thus we believe that the aging of impoundments has resulted in low productivity and organic matter accumulation due to dike stabilization and declines in nutrient loading. We conclude that these freshwater impoundments (in the CMR and likely other similar settings) are not highly productive, and may not provide abundant forage and optimal wildlife habitat which is expected of these systems; adaptive management strategies and hydrologic rehabilitation merit consideration to enhance ecological functioning. Understanding landscape attributes, hydrologic dynamics, and conditions prior to and after major human alterations should be a priority in future compensation projects.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Maxwell Turner and Dewey Dunnington for field assistance. Financial support for this project was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs program, Ducks Unlimited Canada, and Acadia University. Thanks to Andrew Kennedy and Canadian Wildlife Service for logistic support, and providing a research permit for field work. We thank the referees for helpful and insightful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Acadia University, 15 University Drive, Wolfville, NS, B4P 2R6, Canada

    Amanda L. Loder & Mark L. Mallory

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, B4P 2R6, Canada

    Ian Spooner

  3. Ducks Unlimited Canada, Atlantic Region Office, 64 Hwy 6, P.O. Box 430, Amherst, NS, B4H 3Z5, Canada

    Nic R. McLellan

  4. Department of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 698, Halifax, NS, B3J 2T9, Canada

    Chris White

  5. Department of Biology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada

    John P. Smol

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  1. Amanda L. Loder
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  2. Mark L. Mallory
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  3. Ian Spooner
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  4. Nic R. McLellan
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  5. Chris White
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  6. John P. Smol
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amanda L. Loder.

Appendix

Appendix

Amherst Point Marsh

figure a

  • There are channels located throughout the Amherst Point Marsh which catch agricultural runoff.

  • There are no culverts carrying road runoff into the Amherst sites.

Site A1

figure b

  • Partially enclosed by diking.

  • May receive overland flow, throughflow and/or baseflow from adjacent forest.

Site A2

figure c

  • Partially enclosed by diking.

  • May receive overland flow, throughflow and/or baseflow from adjacent forest.

  • Receives some inflow from adjacent (upland) impoundment.

Site A3

figure d

  • May receive overland flow, throughflow and/or baseflow from adjacent forest.

  • Receives inflow from Layton’s Lake.

Site B7

figure e
figure f

  • Fully enclosed by diking.

Site M1

figure g
figure h

  • Partially enclosed by diking.

  • Receives some inflow from upland impoundment.

Site M2

figure i

  • Partially enclosed by diking.

  • Receives inflow from upland bog.

  • Site M2 has some outflow.

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Loder, A.L., Mallory, M.L., Spooner, I. et al. Do rural impoundments in coastal Bay of Fundy, Canada sustain adequate habitat for wildlife?. Wetlands Ecol Manage 26, 213–230 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-017-9566-7

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