Manatee River Watershed: Ecology - Sarasota.WaterAtlas.org

Rare Species and Communities

Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) assists with tracking the occurrences of rare, threatened, endangered and exemplary plants, animals and natural communities, called elements. An element is any exemplary or rare component of the natural environment, such as a species, natural community, bird rookery, spring, sinkhole, cave, or other ecological feature. An element occurrence is a single extant habitat that sustains or otherwise contributes to the survival of a population or a distinct, self-sustaining example of a particular element, such as a plant species. The following links provide access to tools on the FNAI website where you can view a list of elements in your area and read a description of each element (e.g. plant, animal, or natural community).

Access the FNAI Searchable Tracking List web page:

Searchable Tracking List

FNAI also provides the following educational information:

Other informative sites on Florida's endangered species include, but are not limited to:

Vegetation Sampling

Vegetation sampling is the identification and quantification of plant species and communities. Vegetation sampling is a tool used in environmental assessments and can inform a myriad of assessment goals including biomass availability, water quality concerns, management benchmarks, and determining the introduction and establishment of invasive species. Sampling can be conducted via destructive or non-destructive methods. Learn more about vegetation sampling from the links and documents listed below.

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Birds

Some common birds in this region that you might see include - Great Blue Heron, Cattle Egret, Great Egret, White Ibis, Brown Pelican, Osprey, Wood Stork, Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, Bald Eagles and the threatened Florida Scrub-jay.

Audubon Christmas Bird Count Data for Water Dependent, Threatened, and Endangered Birds

More than 50,000 observers participate each year in this all-day census of early-winter bird populations. The results of their efforts are compiled into the longest running database in ornithology, representing over a century of unbroken data on trends of early-winter bird populations across the Americas. Simply put, the Christmas Bird Count, or "CBC", is citizen science in action.

The table below demonstrates the average number of birds seen per hour of effort put forth to view them. The historic average is the average of the total number of birds seen per hour of effort divided by the number of years listed in the brackets.

Species Name	Listing	Myakka Quadrangle		Sarasota Quadrangle		Venice Quadrangle
Species Name	Listing	2011 - 2012 Results	Historic Average	2011 - 2012 Results	Historic Average	2011 - 2012 Results	Historic Average
American Oystercatcher	SSC			0.04	0.04 (1 yrs)
Bald Eagle	T			0.34	0.34 (1 yrs)
Black Skimmer	SSC			0.34	0.34 (1 yrs)
Brown Pelican	SSC			6.58	6.58 (1 yrs)
Florida Scrub-jay	T
Little Blue Heron	SSC			1.42	1.42 (1 yrs)
Peregrine Falcon	T			0.02	0.02 (1 yrs)
Reddish Egret	SSC			0.04	0.04 (1 yrs)
Snowy Plover	T			0.11	0.11 (1 yrs)
Tricolored Heron	SSC			1.1	1.1 (1 yrs)
White Ibis	SSC			10.56	10.56 (1 yrs)
Wood Stork	E			0.9	0.9 (1 yrs)

* Threatened (T), Endangered (E) and Species of Special Concern (SSC) status as listed by the State of Florida.

Source: National Audubon Society

Florida's Breeding Bird Atlas

This site provides access to the Florida Breeding Bird Atlas data recorded by volunteers from 1986 - 1991. The surveys occurred in all 67 counties which were divided into 1028, 7.5 minutes topographic quadrangles. Each quadrangle was further divided into 6 (2 wide by 3 tall) equal-sized blocks of about 10 miles² of which about 75% (4,866) were surveyed. For each species, a breeding code indicating the "highest" breeding evidence was recorded.

Florida's Breeding Bird Atlas

Sarasota County Water Atlas

Manatee River Watershed

Description

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