T220 Undergraduate Research Projects As a Way to Solve Water- Related Problems/Issues (Posters)

Tuesday, 21 October 2014
9:00 AM - 6:30 PM
Exhibition Hall C

DESIGNING A SHALLOW GROUNDWATER MONITORING STUDY TO SUPPORT RE-INTRODUCTION OF AN INDIANA STATE ENDANGERED AMPHIBIAN

Paper number: T220-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 6:30 PM

Authors

Abstract

A shallow groundwater monitoring program is targeting endangered species management on reclaimed coal mine land managed by the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (PRNWR). The monitoring effort is designed to provide resource managers with hydrologic data to support a proposed re-introduction of a state endangered amphibian, the Crawfish Frog (Lithobates areolatus). Suitable habitat for crawfish frogs requires three conditions. (1) Wetlands to be used as breeding sites; (2) large grassland complexes for habitat; and (3) a sustained population of adult crawfish as their burrows are used by the frogs to escape predation. Upland crawfish may burrow where the water table does not exceed 1.5 meters below the ground surface. A hydrologic study of the area was designed to evaluate the potential preferred areas for re-introduction as indicated by PRNWR refuge specialists. Shallow well transects and surface water monitoring of adjacent wetlands will provide PRNWR staff with data needed to make important wildlife management decisions.

Specific sites identified by resource managers as preferred for re-introduction that have been examined are deemed unsuitable for Crawfish Frog habitat. Soil cores were extracted down to 1.8 meters without any indication of the water table within the mine spoil at desired depths. After sufficient time was allowed for infiltration, the shallow wells remained dry. Surface water depths in targeted wetlands have declined from 0.40 to 0.04 meters at one site and 0.37 to 0.21 meters at a second location during the period between May-July 2014. At each site, uplands immediately adjacent to wetlands do not have saturated groundwater at the necessary depth. Pending further data, this research has provided resource managers the data necessary to make decisions that would prevent a failed re-introduction of an endangered species.