Final Report

Avian and Plant Diversity of the Onondaga Lake Solvay

Waste Beds, Syracuse, NY

Submitted to

Edna Bailey Sussman Foundation

By

Anand Chaudhary

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Syracuse, NY

December 2013

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Avian and Plant Diversity of the Onondaga Lake Solvay Waste Beds, Syracuse, NY

Introduction

Onondaga Lake is one of the important lakes in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York that drains into Lake Ontario. Onondaga Lake is a Federal Superfund site listed by EPA in 1994 (Onondaga Lake Partnership 2010) due to industrial and municipal discharge of hazardous material into the lake for over 100 years. The lake is contaminated with PCBs, PAHs, VOCs and heavy metals like mercury, chromium, lead, and cobalt. As much as 9 Kg. of mercury per day was released by industry into the lake at one point (Onondaga Lake Partnership 2010). Disposal of soda ash waste along the lake shore has led to the creation of huge mounds now simply known as the ‘wastebeds’. The wastebeds rise 15 meters from the lake shore and cover over one km2. Waste from the production of soda ash was pumped to settling basins adjacent to the lake shore since Solvay Process Company started producing soda ash in 1884 (Onondaga Lake Partnership 2010). The water evaporated, leaving a chalky, white alkaline substrate (Michalenko 1991).

The waste beds have become vegetated through natural succession and from 2004 - 2008 through restoration with plant communities that have become rare elsewhere in New York State. These include willow scrub/shrub, aspen (Populus deltoides) forest, and grassland. The diverse habitat types with minimal anthropogenic disturbance have led to creation of a urban refuge for birds. An initial study of wildlife communities in the waste beds indicated the presence of shrubland and grassland birds, including song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), American robin (Turdus migratorius) and warblers (Campbell et al. 2012). A bike and nature trail is now being developed in the wastebeds as a part of restoration effort.

The objective of this study is to determine the relative value of the waste beds for avian communities through comparison with reference sites with similar vegetation structure, and to document in a brochure some of the unique birds, plants, and other organisms that I have seen in my time working on the site, for use in public outreach as the trails are developed.

Methods

Study Area

The study area is wastebeds 1-8 along the southern shore of Onondaga Lake near Syracuse, NY. Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area, Baldwinsville, NY and Camillus Forest Unique Area, Camillus, NY were selected as a reference site because they have no known point source of mercury and chromium and also

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because some areas contain similar vegetation structure to the study area, although the plan species composition appear to be different.

Avian Diversity

Double observer point count (Nichols et al. 2000) with 50-m radius was used to survey birds. All point counts were located at a minimum distance of 150 m from each other Point count location either followed a circular path around the periphery of study area or a central path. In the case of a circular path, point count locations were placed 25 m to the inside. In the case of a central path, point count location were placed either 10 m (for all points established in 2013) or 25 m (all points established in 2012) alternating to either left or right of the path at 90 degrees. A total of 37 point count locations were established at the wastebeds; 25 at the Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area and 10 at Camillus Forest Unique Area.

The two observers would alternate at each point count location as primary and secondary observers. The secondary observer records all birds identified by the primary observer and separately records those missed by the primary observer. The 10-minute point counts were divided into 2-minute blocks and numbers of birds of each species were recorded separately for each 2-minute blocks. Point counts were carried out between 6:00 am and 9:30am. Study was not carried out during rain or high winds. Each point count location was visited three times during the study, once at the beginning of summer (28 May-8 June), once in the middle (25 June-11 July) and once towards the end (30 July-12 August).

Vegetation Sampling

The 72 point count locations were used for studying vegetation. At all points vegetation was studied by measuring % canopy cover, stem density, and % ground cover. Canopy cover was measured by traveling along a 50-m straight-line transect from the center in north, south, east and west directions. At every 5 m, canopy cover was checked and recorded as ‘yes’ and ‘no’ with a densitometer. Similarly, the study plot was divided into 4 quadrants from the center point by lines going north-south and east-west. A point-quarter technique was used to estimate stem density. The nearest shrub, small tree (diameter <3cm), and large tree were measured for diameter at breast height (dbh) and height. A grid with 64 cells (10 cm x 10 cm) was used to estimate % ground cover. The grid was placed at the center and at 25 m and 50 m in all four compass directions and anything (grass, herbaceous plant, soil, leaf litter, moss etc.) that fell below the cross-hairs were recorded (49 cross-hairs). In addition, we also identified dominant plants at each grid locations to the species level where possible.

Development of outreach material

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During field work, photo documentation of interesting and unique fauna and flora of the waste beds was carried out. The documented plants and animals were identified to the species level as far as possible.

Data Analysis

Data analysis is being carried out using a variety of statistical tools. For analysis of species abundance, program DOBSERV which links up with program SURVIV was used. Further analysis will be carried out using removal estimation technique in Program MARK.

Preliminary Results

A total of 64 species were detected from thee sited from point counts and 49, 44 and 30 species were detected at the Waste beds, Three Rivers and Camillus sites respectively. The number of species detected per site during the three different visits is provided in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Number of species detected during point count surveys at Onondaga Lake waste beds (WB), Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area (TR) and Camillus Forest Unique Area (CM) during the summer of 2013 in Onondaga County, NY

A preliminary analysis of four common species of birds, American goldfinch, song sparrow, grey catbird and yellow warbler is revealed in Figure 2.

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Figure 2: Number of birds per hectare for the Onondaga Lake waste beds (WB), Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area (TR) and Camillus Forest Unique Area (CM) for four common species of birds Yellow warbler (YEWA), song sparrow (SOSP), grey catbird (GRCA) and American Goldfinch (AMGO) based on double observer point counts during early summer (visit # 1), mid-summer (visit # 2) and late summer (visit # 3) of 2013 in Onondaga County, NY

Data for vegetation is yet to be statistically analyzed. The common plant species found at the waste beds are European birch, European buckthorn, quaking aspen, honeysuckle, common reed, smooth brome and goldenrod. Similarly the common species at the Camillus Forest Unique Area were box elder, sugar maple, American beech, European buckthorn, goldenrod and wild leek. At the Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area, the commons species were quaking aspen, shagbark hickory, sensitive fern, common reed, purple loosestrife and wild blueberry.

Future Work

Work remaining includes analysis of vegetation data along with comparision between the waste beds and the reference sites. Further work on analysis of point count data of birds will be done. An outreach material targeting the population that will be using the waste beds for recreational work will be designed. Its publication will depend upon availability of funding.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Edna Bailey Sussman Foundation for supporting this research. Support was also provided by the Fulbright Scholarship, SUNY ESF and US Fish and Wildlife Service. I want to acknowledge the support provided by my major professor Dr. Jonathan Cohen and committee members Dr. James P. Gibbs and Anne Secord.

References

Campbell, S. P., J. L. Frair, J. P. Gibbs, and T.A. Volk. (2012). Use of short rotation coppice willow crops by birds and small mammals in central New York. Biomass and bioenergy 47: 342-353

Michalenko, E. M. 1991. Pedogenesis and invertebrate microcommunity succession in immature soils originating from Chlor-alkali wastes. Doctoral thesis. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York, USA

Nicholson, J. D., J. E. Hines, J. T. Sauer, F. W. Fallon, J. E. Fallon, and P. J. Heglund. 2000. Double-observer approach for estimating detection probability and abundance from point counts. The Auk 117: 393-408

Onondaga Lake Partnership 2010. The State of Onondaga Lake 2010. Onondaga Lake Partnership, Syracuse, NY.

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Annexes

Pictures of fungi from the waste beds to be used for the outreach material

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Floral diversity of the wastebeds in pictures. Will be used for the outreach material.

Vegetation study being carried out at study sites: 1 studying vegetation density; 2 studying ground cover.

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Clockwise from top left: 1. Bobolink a rapidly declining grassland species found breeding at the wastebeds; 2. American robin nest; 3. Tree swallow next to its nest; 4. Cedar waxwing

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