A new peer reviewed paper featuring research conducted at Beaubassin Research Station was just published in the Journal of Wetlands Ecology and Management. 

Paper first author is Kiirsti Owen, who completed her PhD research at Beaubassin while part of Acadia’s Mallory Lab. Kiirsti studied how wetland bird communities were impacted in constructed impoundments, commonly used to offset wetland loss in North America.

This paper “Water level manipulations in human-made impoundments drive species- and guild-specific responses in wetland bird communities” summarizes two field sessions where bird occupancy and abundance at the Beaubassin and nearby impoundments were studied under untreated, drawdown, and post-treated wetlands. A management recommendation from the research is to drawdown impoundments on a rotating schedule to maintain habitat heterogeneity on a larger scale. Differences in bird abundance and species diversity were observed at the various impoundment levels, with many species responding positively to temporary draining of these sites. 

Kiirsti’s PhD co-supervisor, Irving Centre Research Director, Dr. Mark Mallory says “The Beaubassin Research Station and collaboration with Ducks Unlimited Canada offer a world-class site to study these types of wetland management techniques. Kiirsti’s results provide novel insights into differences between coastal wetlands and the much more commonly studied prairie wetlands, on which much of our knowledge for wetland management and birds is based.”

Click here to view the paper.

To learn more about Beaubassin Research Station visit this web page.