Persistence of avian carcasses on sandy beaches and marsh edges in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

ABSTRACT: As part of the natural resource damage assessment for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a mathematical model was used to estimate the total number of bird carcasses deposited on shorelines based on the number of carcasses collected and adjustment factors such as detection probability and carcass persistence. Studies of carcass persistence occurred along sandy beaches and marsh edges in the northern Gulf of Mexico to obtain site-specific inputs for the model. We estimated persistence rates for these habitat types and evaluated the influence on persistence of carcass size, location of the carcass on the beach, dominant vegetation type in the marsh, carcass distance into marsh vegetation, and length of time a carcass was stranded on a shoreline. The length of time stranded had the greatest inf

SUBMITTER: Varela VW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7078173 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature