Ludo Behrendt, Jana Hustedt and Troy Tofil from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) presented preliminary findings and research from their master’s project at the 50th Annual Natural Areas Conference in Manhattan, Kansas. The conference brought together federal, tribal, state, regional and local natural areas practitioners from nonprofit organizations, private industry and academic institutions to foster communication and collaboration. 

The students are part of a larger research team that also includes SEAS master’s students Michael Enda and Megan Eakin. They are all studying Ecosystem Science and Management and are advised by SEAS Lecturer Sheila Schueller, who focuses on conservation and restoration projects. 

The project client is a division of the City of Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation called Natural Area Preservation (NAP). NAP manages about one-third of the natural areas in Ann Arbor. This is the first master’s project that Schueller has partnered with NAP on, and she voices her gratitude to the office for providing summer support for the project, particularly from Remy Long (MS '16), Becky Hand (MS '10), George Hammond, and Juliet Berger. 

Management practices under NAP’s purview include prescribed burns, revegetation, native plantings, and invasive removal. The department also places emphasis on community involvement in restoration efforts. NAP has used community science wildlife surveys since the mid-1990s to collect data spanning three taxa: birds, herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians), and butterflies. 

The research team is analyzing this data to inform future management practices and provide an accurate picture of the fauna in natural areas of Ann Arbor. They are looking specifically at trends in population size, distribution, abundance, diversity, and how they vary both over time and by location. The students are using a multivariate statistical analysis that takes into account variables such as park size, connectivity, habitat types, and specific management strategies. 

As an added dimension, the students are finding ways to quantify how many unique management practices have been implemented in different areas and to what extent. “Quantifying the data will be helpful in future management plans because it will allow NAP to compare this data with trends in species abundance and diversity,” said Behrendt. 

The presentation

During the Natural Areas Conference, the team presented preliminary findings for each of the three taxa in the project and detailed the strategies they used to clean and standardize the data. “We had a great turnout at our presentation,” reflected Hustedt, “and it was exciting to present the work we put into figuring out how to approach the challenges we have experienced with this data set.” 

“The City of Ann Arbor's wildlife community science program the team is working on is a unique model of long-term and multi-metric data collection by a city park system,” added Schueller. “The students' presentation was critical in spreading awareness of this Midwest program to practitioners and researchers primarily from the Western states.”

The team saw this opportunity as an exciting way to share their research and speak with other practitioners about how to evaluate and use community science data. “Being able to present at a conference reinforces the idea that ecology can be interdisciplinary,” said Tofil. “It’s important that researchers know we all contribute to the knowledge base and we can diversify our knowledge, understanding, and respect for what is being done outside of our own focuses through opportunities like this one.”

Behrendt was eager to hear how other practitioners navigated the challenges of community science data sets. “[Other presenters] were always really receptive to the idea that we were working with community science, and would share their own experiences. This was informative for the analysis we are doing and future analyses that NAP might use this data for.” 

Why this master’s project?

Many of the students on the team were drawn to this project because of the opportunity to work with community science data. “I had some background working with community science data, but one of my passions is the idea of community engagement with science,” said Hustedt. “That fosters a lot of care for where we live and an appreciation for the environment.” 

Behrendt elaborated on the value of this analysis. “There are a lot of community science projects that could be used to inform research, but people don’t use them because of challenges in standardization and concerns about inaccuracy. Our research shows that you can use it, you just need to use it with specific goals and develop methods for working with the data.”

The team emphasized the importance of the work they are doing not just for future local management work, but also for community members in the Ann Arbor area. “When we think about climate change and how to solve conservation issues, it comes down to engaging the community in stewardship practice and creating a shared environmental ethic,” noted Tofil. 

Eakin added that this kind of work fills a niche within the professional space. “In recent literature it's starting to become more common to incorporate community science data, and it’s been shown to be just as reliable as experimental data. The practice is so new that we have been looking for papers reflecting a more academic approach and trying to emulate what we think might work with our data.” 

Many of the analysis strategies used in this project don’t come directly from reviewed literature, but were developed by the team based on their analysis needs.

What’s next?

The team is now in the final stages of their analysis that will bring together data from each taxon and management data from NAP to draw conclusions about how different management strategies impact diversity and abundance. The team will also make recommendations to NAP to better plan where and how different management practices should be implemented across the city’s natural areas. 

Referencing what they’ve learned about science communications, the team will be sharing their findings with NAP in the form of a story map and a set of formal recommendations. They are also hoping to publish the results in a scientific journal. 

Schueller is excited about their commitment to the project and accomplishments so far. “The students work really effectively as a team. Their ability to cross-walk analytical approaches across taxa increases the value of their work and they now have a much more sophisticated understanding of the ecological and analytical complexities common to any large dataset,” she said. “I've also enjoyed watching the students become even more excited and knowledgeable about the potential for their focal taxa to thrive in urbanized settings.”

The team will be presenting again in January 2025 at the Stewardship Network Conference in Lansing, Michigan.