Focuses on the status of system recovery and a suite of injured apex predators as indicators of environmental stress--the invertebrate feeding sea otter and harlequin duck, and fish feeding pigeon guillemot and river otter.
Takes a multispecies, integrated approach to assess several potential key mechanisms constraining recovery of the nearshore system. For our test species, the 1994 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (EVOS) workshop suggested the following mechanisms had high potential as factors constraining recovery:
Based on that consensus, Scientists with the USGS Biological Resources Division, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Association, and US Fish & Wildlife Service, will ask "are vertebrate populations recovering, and if so, are they recovering as quickly as possible given potential rates of population increase?" This will be done by measuring population density and demographic factors (e.g., size and age distributions, birth rates, survival rates) at both oiled and unoiled sites to examine possible reasons for lack of recovery, and assess progress toward recovery given demographic restraints.
In conjunction with this "recovery monitoring" approach, additional questions asked, " is it oil?" or "is it food?" that limits recovery. This will be addressed through evaluation of demographic measures, health assessments, biomarkers of oil exposure, and availability of prey for the four nearshore vertebrate predators in oiled and unoiled study areas of Prince William Sound, Alaska.
Get further information on NVP Research by clicking on the Factors Constraining Recovery:
Demography
Continued Hydrocarbon Exposure
Food Availability
Click here for background on the research study, "Mechanisms of Impact and Potential Recovery of Nearshore Vertebrate Predators".