Likely Changes in Habitat Quality for Fish and Wildlife in Coastal Louisiana during the Next Fifty Years

Abstract

ABSTRACT Nyman, J.A.; Baltz, D.M.; Kaller, M.D.; Leberg, P.L.; Parsons Richards, C.; Romaire, R.P., and Soniat, T.M., 2013. Likely changes in habitat quality for fish and wildlife in coastal Louisiana during the next fifty years. Louisiana's 2012 Master Plan for a sustainable coast was designed to minimize economic damage from storm surges and to maximize wetland habitat for fish and wildlife. Selecting projects for inclusion in the master plan depended partly on models that simulated the effects of management options on environmental factors that control habitat quality for fish and wildlife. We used 13 models to predict the effects of the master plan on habitat quality for fish and wildlife in coastal Louisiana. Habitat quality was predicted to change more for the Neotropical songbirds and seven other modeled species losing habitat quality with the status quo (−37%) than it was predicted to increase for five modeled species gaining habitat quality with the status quo (+18%). The master plan was predicte...