One of PEARL’s Focus Topics addresses the biology, water quality and other issues related to Atlantic Salmon watersheds in Maine. Over the past several months, the PEARL team has been working on a major revision and expansion of the site’s Atlantic Salmon pages. The results of this work are now available on-line, accessible via PEARL Home > Focus Topics > Atlantic Salmon. In addition to providing access to full data tables and information summaries, the pages also include newly developed data visualization features. These visualizations provide on-the-fly graphing for data such as salmon returns, salmon redds and water temperature.
From the Atlantic Salmon homepage (Fig. 1), you can follow several directions, depending on your information needs:
Figure 1: Atlantic Salmon Homepage
1. Search for information by Individual Watershed.
The map on the homepage (Fig. 1) shows key salmon watersheds. Click on any watershed to link to the detailed page for that drainage (Fig. 2a, 2b).
Figures 2a and 2b: Information by Individual Watershed
PEARL displays a topographic map of the watershed. To find out more about this watershed, click on Watershed Overview – this is a convenient way to access summary information about the watershed, as well as viewing the full suite of titles in the PEARL Data Bank that contain records for this watershed. Below the Watershed Overview button, there is a list of selected Key Data Sets – tables with particular relevance to salmon in this watershed. For each title, you can access the data (only records for the selected watershed are displayed). For some data set titles, there is also a data visualization option. For example, under Fishway Trap Catches, clicking the “Graph” button displays the annual number of returning salmon in this river (Fig. 3a). To view the within-year pattern of fish returns, simply click on the bar for any year (Fig. 3b).
Figures 3a and 3b: Graph Displays for Individual Watersheds
Other data visualization features include annual numbers of salmon redds (Fig. 3c) and seasonal variation in water temperature (Fig. 3d).
Figures 3c and 3d: Graph Displays for Individual Watersheds
Also from the Individual Watershed page (Fig. 2b), you can link to the USFWS salmon habitat map, as well as find a list of lakes (>100 acres) present in this watershed. Clicking on a lake name leads to the Lake Overview page, which in turns provides ready access to a broad spectrum of summary information, data visualizations and full data tables for that lake (Fig. 4). Finally, the Individual Watershed page also provides a link to NGOs and other organizations involved in salmon management, conservation and research.
Figure 4: Lake Overview Page
If you are interested in information from other watersheds that are not included in the map of salmon watersheds (Fig. 1), simply click on the Other Maine Watersheds button on the Atlantic Salmon homepage to enter PEARL’s watershed-based data search feature.
2. Full Salmon Data Sets
This feature provides overviews of selected biological and water quality data from the salmon watersheds – data sets are selected based on their relevance to salmon management and conservation. Under each entry, there are direct links to metadata, maps and the data tables themselves.
3. Interactive Mapping
A GIS approach to exploring selected biological and water quality data, with the ability to zoom in/out and turn on/off various data layers (Fig. 5). For each of the biology and water quality data sets accessed via this mapping feature, users can also link to the core data tables from which the shapefiles were generated.
Figure 5: Interactive Mapping
4. Salmon References
Clicking on the Key Salmon References button (Fig. 1) displays a list of important reports, journal articles and other publications related to Maine’s salmon watersheds. Many of these publications are accessible on-line as full-text documents (Fig. 6).
Figure 6: Key Salmon References
The Reference Library button links to an on-line, spatially-referenced, bibliographic database – “KnowledgeBase” (KB) – that is being developed as a joint venture between the Mitchell Center and the Gulf of Maine Council (Fig. 7). Within KB, users can execute simple or advanced searches. There are also a series of built-in or ‘canned’ queries to extract records relevant to certain topics, for examples Atlantic Salmon and the Penobscot Basin. Note that this references database is still in development, with new records and features being added. Also, several developments in PEARL are planned later for later this year which will further integrate these two on-line information resources. Watch future PEARL newsletters for announcements about these developments!
Figure 7: KnowledgeBase
New River Temperature Data Now Available on PEARL
Water temperature data recently provided by the Atlantic Salmon Commission are now available on PEARL. Data are currently presented as weekly mean, minimum and maximum temperatures from a total of 71 sites in five Downeast drainages: Dennys, East Machias, Machias, Narraguagus and Pleasant. For a few sites (in the Narraguagus watershed), the data record spans over 10 years. Most sites, however, have shorter data records. To view the full data table, take this route: PEARL Home > Data > Browse Data Sets > Water Quality (Lakes & Streams) > River Water Temperatures: Weekly Averages. To view on-the-fly graphs of these data, access them through the Atlantic Salmon pages (see previous article in this newsletter). In October, the daily temperature data from these watersheds will be posted on PEARL – note that daily temperature records for the Narraguagus are already on-line.
Mitchell Center Receives NFWF Funding for Kenduskeag Website
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has funded the Mitchell Center to develop a PEARL-based website to host water quality data from the Kenduskeag watershed collected by students and staff of Central High School in East Corinth. The website will integrate student-collected data with a broad range of other information relating to the Kenduskeag area. Mitchell Center staff will collaborate with science teacher Shawn Kimball at Central to design an on-line environmental resource for students and citizens of the watershed. Additional input will come from Mark Whiting (ME DEP) and Ed Lindsey (Old Town High School).
Coming to PEARL in September ….
BIOBLITZ data from Schoodic Peninsula!
For the past several years, biologists at Acadia National Park (ANP) have organized a series of BioBlitzs – intensive biological surveys of selected taxonomic groups carried out over a single weekend per year. Recent examples include butterflies and moths, ants, beetles and, this year, flies. These surveys have yielded many species not previously recorded from ANP, as well as some species that represent new Maine records. ANP staff have provided BioBlitz data to the Mitchell Center and this information will be posted on PEARL during September.
Frequently-Asked Questions.
I am looking for information on fish and freshwater mussels in Maine. On PEARL’s home page, should I go to DATA or to FOCUS TOPICS > Freshwater Biodiversity?
It depends on how much background and other information you are looking for. Both avenues will lead to PEARL’s fish and mussel core data tables – for example IF&W’s mussel and lake fish surveys. However, the Freshwater Biodiversity pages provide supporting information and topic overviews that are not found in the DATA pages. Here are 4 examples of the options available to you:
1. You want to find out what fish and mussel data sets are available in PEARL.
Do this: PEARL Home > Data > Browse Data Sets > Fauna under either Lakes & Streams or Wetlands etc. This displays all of the relevant data set titles in the PEARL Data Bank. Opening any table will display the full data set.
2. You are only looking for summary species lists for a lake or a watershed.
Take this route: PEARL Home > Data > Search by Lake or Search by Watershed. Once the lake or watershed overview page displays, simply click on the Fish or Mussel button to generate a species list. Note that this list is generated dynamically once you click the button – thus it always reflects the most current data in the PEARL Data Bank.
3. Rather than a summary species list, you want to see all of the fish or mussel data for that lake or watershed.
In the lake or watershed overview page, scroll down until you see the Fauna icon (a picture of a loon); click on this icon to display the fauna tables; then select a table to open. In this case, since you have already selected the lake or watershed, PEARL automatically extracts and displays only those data records that derive from the area of interest.
4. You want to find a list of all PEARL data sets that contain fish information.
While you could Browse through all Fauna data titles, a more direct approach is: PEARL Home > Data > Search by Topic > Fauna > Fish.
5. You are looking for species distribution maps and other background information about Maine’s fish and mussel species.
Take this route: PEARL Home > Focus Topics > Freshwater Biodiversity. From the Biodiversity home page, select a taxonomic group and then the type of information you are looking for.
I want to know more about where PEARL data come from and how the information was collected.
Each data set in the PEARL Data Bank has metadata – background information about the data. Access the metadata by clicking on the “About the Data” button at the top left of the data table. PEARL metadata are always presented in the same format and include such information as: (i) who provided the data; (ii) their contact information; (iii) a map of data collection locations; (iv) time period of data collection; (v) descriptions of each of the parameters in the data table. Before using PEARL data, always read the metadata!
