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Abstract
Integrating GIS to Develop a Conservation and Monitoring Plan for Rookery Islands in Laguna Madre, Texas, USATrack: Ocean, Coastal, and Marine Resources
Author(s): Meris Sims, Elizabeth H. Smith, John Wood
Rookery Islands support a diversity of colonial nesting waterbird species along the Texas Coast. Islands within the Padre Island National Seashore are being evaluated to determine appropriate strategies to both conserve and restore these essential habitats. Commercial and recreational traffic along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway within the Laguna Madre of Texas creates varying levels of disturbance to nesting birds. Both erosion and natural vegetation changes also affect potential use of the islands by colonial waterbirds. The use of GIS provides the natural resource manager and waterbird researchers with a multidimensional tool to assess island dynamics over time and target areas that are in need of conservation or restoration measures.
Meris Sims
Texas A&M University
6300 Ocean Drive
Corpus Christi, TX 78418
USA
Phone: 361-825-6001 x
E-mail: meris_sims_2000@yahoo.com