Mikayla House
Texas A&M University Kingsville
Masters Student
Modeling foraging habitat for shorebirds in the Laguna Madre
As the Texas coast continues to experience population growth and urban development, understanding the habitat used by native species will only become more important for successful management and conservation. We plan to develop a model that will predict the availability of shorebird foraging habitat during spring migration in the Laguna Madre located on the lower Texas Coast.
The model will be constructed using satellite imagery, topographic information, LIDAR data, elevation data, and benthic habitat datasets. Tidal fluctuations in the Laguna Madre are primarily wind driven so our water movement layer will relate the location of the waterline to collected tide and weather data including tide gauge readings, barometric pressure, and wind speed, direction, and duration. Waterline locations will be compiled from GPS coordinates collected on foot and from surface water extractions on satellite images.
