A researcher carefully holds the legs of a Prairie Warbler that is about to be released.
Current Research
In most years, Albany Pine Bush Preserve staff, along with partners, are engaged in approximately 15 research and monitoring projects in the preserve. Staff and partners collect data to answer questions ranging from the effects of management on plants and animals to public perception of the preserve and its policies.
Acoustic monitoring of nocturnal migration of birds
Acoustic monitoring of nocturnal migration of birds
Microphones are used to record flight calls that can be identified to species.
Background: Although banding provides information on birds that use the preserve as stop-over habitat during the day, many migrants go undetected as they pass overhead at night. These migrants can be detected and counted based on their nocturnal flight calls.
Study objective: Examine the abundance and timing of species migrating over the preserve during fall migration.
Methods: A microphone connected to a digital recorder is deployed on the roof of the Discovery Center to record calls each night during fall migration. Bird flight calls are extracted from the recordings and identified to species by examining the sonogram of each call.
Principal Investigator: NatureBits (naturebits.org)
Habitat use of birds during fall migration
Habitat use of birds during fall migration
Captures of migrant bird species during the fall reflect the timing of their migration through the preserve.
Background: Many migratory birds must stop along their journey to rest and refuel. These stop-over habitats provide a critical link between the breeding and overwintering habitats because without them birds would be unlikely to survive their roundtrip migration. Pitch pine-scrub oak barrens likely provide food and cover for a suite of migrating species that are distinct from those that use forests, which are much more common in the northeastern US.
Study objective: Document the diversity and abundance of species using the preserve as stopover habitat during fall migration.
Methods: Commission scientists operate a banding station in the preserve each year between September and November. Scientists capture birds using an array of fine mesh nets. When a bird is captured, scientists attach a lightweight, numbered aluminum leg band and record its age, sex, and body condition before releasing the bird. All banding data are reported to USGS Bird Banding Lab.
Principal Investigator: APBPC
Hydrology
Hydrology
[Top] A staff gauge is used to monitor water depth in a wetland. [Bottom] Vernal ponds (i.e., depressions that temporarily fill with water in the spring) provide important breeding areas for amphibians.
Background: The timing and amount of groundwater availability has important effects on the ecology of upland and wetland habitats in the preserve.
Study objective: Evaluate groundwater dynamics in the APBP.
Methods: Staff gauges are installed in wetlands to monitor the water depth weekly. Depth to groundwater is recorded weekly within a network of wells across the preserve.
Principal investigator: APBPC
Karner blue habitat suitability
Karner blue habitat suitability
Preserve staff measure vegetation to assess habitat quality for the Karner blue.
Background: The APBP supports one of the few remaining populations of the endangered Karner blue in the northeast. Thus, it is important to ensure that management to restore and maintain pitch pine-scrub oak barrens in the preserve is providing suitable habitat for the species.
Study objective: Determine if management to restore and maintain suitable Karner blue habitat is successful.
Methods: Commission scientists estimate lupine stem density, evaluate nectar availability and characterize the vegetation structure along transects to assess habitat suitability and to monitor the vegetation response to management.
Principal Investigator: APBPC
Microclimate variation created by dune topography
Microclimate variation created by dune topography
Data loggers record temperature and relative humidity at 10-minute intervals.
Background: The Albany Pine Bush Preserve protects the largest inland parabolic dune field in the eastern US. The microclimate variation created by the dunes (e.g., north/south slopes and frost pockets) may have subtle yet important effects on the ecology of plants and animals in the preserve.
StudyObjective: Quantify variation in microclimate created by the sand dunes.
Methods: HOBO data loggers are placed at the top, middle and bottom of dunes to continually record temperature and humidity.
Principal investigator: APBPC
Monitoring bird productivity and survival as a means of assessing habitat quality
Monitoring bird productivity and survival as a means of assessing habitat quality
Birds are captured in mistnets and a uniquely numbered aluminum band is attached to the leg of each bird.
Background: Restoring the vegetation community of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve to pitch pine-scrub oak barrens should improve habitat quality for birds associated with this plant community. Improved habitat quality should, in turn, result in increased survival, reproduction, and return rates of these birds.
Study objective: Estimate survival and productivity of birds breeding in pitch pine-scrub oak barrens in the APBP.
Methods: Commission scientists follow protocols established by the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program, a continent-wide collaborative effort run by the Institute for Bird Populations to assess North American bird productivity and survival during the breeding season (birdpop.org/pages/maps.php). They operate two MAPS banding stations in the preserve each year between June and August. At each station, scientists capture birds using an array of fine mesh nets that are deployed following a standardized, constant-effort protocol. When a bird is captured, scientists attach a lightweight, numbered aluminum leg band and record its age, sex, body condition, and reproductive status before releasing the bird. All banding data are reported to The Institute for Bird Populations and USGS Bird Banding Lab. Subsequent recapture data provide information on survival, reproductive rates, and movement patterns.
Principal investigator: APBPC in collaboration with The Institute for Bird Populations
Monitoring population size of the endangered Karner blue
Monitoring population size of the endangered Karner blue
Brood size trends of the Karner blue in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve from 2007-2017.
Background: The APBP supports one of the few remaining populations of the endangered Karner blue in the northeast. The population size is monitored to understand how the population at APBP is responding to management and to evaluate success of recovery efforts.
Study objective: Annually estimate first and second brood sizes of the Karner blue.
Methods: Researchers walk permanent straight line transects through habitat multiple times per year and record the number of butterflies seen and the distance of each butterfly from the transect.
Principal investigator: APBPC
Movement patterns of eastern spadefoots
Movement patterns of eastern spadefoots
The eastern spadefoot is a species of greatest conservation need in New York State.
Background: The eastern spadefoot is a rare toad that is at the northern limit of its range in the Albany Pine Bush. The toad’s presence in the preserve is known primarily from breeding events, which occur whenever intense rainstorms trigger toads to emerge from their burrows. The rest of the year, toads spend much of their time hidden in their burrows and surface only occasionally to feed. Very little is known about the species’ non-breeding ecology in the preserve.
Study objective: Understand the movement patterns of eastern spadefoots between feeding, resting, and breeding locations.
Methods: Scientists from Siena College conduct calling surveys to determine breeding locations of spadefoots and to locate individuals for capture. When spadefoots are captured they are fitted with radio transmitters so their movement patterns can be documented.
Principal Investigator: Siena College
Mycorrhizal fungal associations of scrub oak and pitch pine
Mycorrhizal fungal associations of scrub oak and pitch pine
Fruiting bodies of an ectomycorrhizal fungus from the genus Rhizopogon.
Background: Mycorrhizal soil fungi form mutually beneficial relationships with many types of woody plants and are critical to the establishment and survival of pines and oaks. Because mycorrhizal fungi are specific to certain species of plants, the absence of the appropriate fungal species in the soil can inhibit attempts to restore pitch pine-scrub oak barrens.
Study Objective: Identify the species of soil fungi inhabiting pitch pine-scrub oak barrens and invasive black locust stands and determine which species are symbiotic with pitch pine and scrub oak in the preserve.
Methods: Use DNA analysis and experimental plantings in the laboratory and the field to identify soil fungi used by pitch pine and scrub oak.
Principal Investigator: SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Pitch pine recruitment
Pitch pine recruitment
A newly established pitch pine in the preserve.
Background: Pitch pines are an integral part of the ecological community at the preserve, but changes in the vegetation community due to fire exclusion and invasive plants have largely inhibited the recruitment of new pitch pines for decades. Management efforts to restore and maintain pitch pine-scrub oak barrens (e.g., tree thinning, mowing, and prescribed fires) is likely helping new pitch pines become established but if management is too frequent it could also prevent trees from reaching maturity.
Study objective: Evaluate the rates that pitch pines seedlings become established and survive into reproductive size classes and examine how these rates differ among areas that are managed and unmanaged.
Methods: Pitch pines are permanently marked in plots located in areas that are regularly managed and areas where management has been temporarily ceased. Plots are visited each year to document the establishment of new seedlings and the survival and growth of pitch pine that are already established.
Principal Investigator: APBPC
Prairie warbler movements during the non-breeding season
Prairie warbler movements during the non-breeding season
A geolocator is attached to a prairie warbler to reveal its approximate daily locations during migration.
Background: Prairie warblers have declined across their range in the past few decades due in part to the loss and degradation of the shrubland habitats that they use during the breeding season. However, little is known about factors during the non-breeding season that may also be contributing to their decline. A first step towards understanding these factors is to identify the areas that prairie warblers use during the non-breeding season and the times at which they use them.
Study objective: Identify migratory stopover and over-wintering habitats of prairie warblers that breed in inland pine barrens in New York and Massachusetts as well as the timing of their movements among these areas.
Methods: Prairie warblers at APBP and Montague Plains Wildlife Management Area were captured using mist nets and fitted with geolocators, which are data loggers that continuously measure and store data on light levels. The light-level data are used to estimate day length and solar noon, which are used to determine the latitude and longitude of a bird each day during its migration to the overwintering grounds and back again.
Principal Investigator: APBPC and University of Massachusetts Amherst
Project Owlnet
Project Owlnet
A northern saw-whet owl captured at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.
Background: Project Owlnet (projectowlnet.org) facilitates a continent-wide network of migrant owl banding stations to study northern saw-whet owl movement and biology.
Study objective: Contribute to Project Owlnet and document the use of the preserve by northern saw-whet owls during migration.
Methods: Commission scientists operate a migrant owl banding station in the preserve each fall according to standardized protocol established by Project Owlnet. Owls are captured by luring them into mist-nets using the song of northern saw-whet owls. When an owl is captured, scientists attach a lightweight, numbered aluminum leg band and record its age, sex, and body condition before releasing the bird to continue its journey. All banding data are reported to Project Owlnet and the USGS Bird Banding lab.
Principal Investigator: APBPC in collaboration with Project Owlnet
Range expansion of the Southern pine beetle
Range expansion of the Southern pine beetle
Commission staff deploy a pheromone trap in the preserve.
Background: The southern pine beetle is a native species moving northward in response to climate change. The range expansion is a cause for concern because the beetle can decimate pine trees in the northeast especially when trees occur in dense stands.
Study objective: Document the northward expansion of the Southern pine beetle
Methods: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) has installed traps throughout the state. Commission scientists deploy and check five traps in the preserve. The traps are hung from pitch pine trees and contain a pheromone lure to attract beetles.
Principal Investigator: APBPC in collaboration with NYSDEC
Site suitability for the reintroduction of American burying beetles
Site suitability for the reintroduction of American burying beetles
Live traps baited with small dead animals are used to capture carrion beetles
Background: The endangered American burying beetle once occurred in 35 states but is now limited to only four states: Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Nebraska. To increase the distribution and abundance of the species, scientists are looking for suitable sites to reintroduce the species.
Study objective: Evaluate the carrion beetle community in the preserve to determine the suitability of the preserve for reintroduction of the American burying beetle
Methods: Live traps baited with a small dead animal (the food source of carrion beetles) are deployed throughout the preserve. Traps are checked daily and captured beetles are identified to species, measured, marked and released.
Principal Investigator: SUNY Cobleskill
Small animal migration using Motus Wildlife Tracking System
Small animal migration using Motus Wildlife Tracking System
Background: The Motus Wildlife Tracking System (motus.org) is a collaborative research network that uses an array of automated radio telemetry stations located throughout the western hemisphere to study migratory movements of small animals affixed with radio transmitters. When signals detected from many radio telemetry stations are combined, the array can track individual animals moving thousands of kilometers, facilitating landscape-scale research and education on the ecology and conservation of migratory animals.
Study objective: Contribute to the Motus network while simultaneously getting information on animals that migrate by the preserve.
Methods: APBP has installed a Motus station on the roof of the Discovery Center. Data from the tower will be automatically downloaded and added to a central repository for all data collected across the network.
Principal Investigator: APBPC in collaboration with the Motus Wildlife Tracking System
Temporal and spatial patterns of mammal activity
Temporal and spatial patterns of mammal activity
Young gray foxes are captured on a wildlife camera in the preserve.
Background: Invasive plants and decades of fire suppression have degraded pitch pine-scrub oak barrens or changed them to forest. Consequently, restoring the vegetation communities of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve to pitch pine-scrub oak barrens can require considerable changes to the vegetation (e.g., converting non-native black locust forests to grasslands or oak-pine forests to pitch pine-scrub oak barrens). These changes can, in turn, affect the composition of the mammal community and result in shifts in their patterns of habitat use.
Study objective: Document how medium- to large-sized mammals utilize the managed APBP landscape.
Methods:Motion-sensitive wildlife camera traps are deployed throughout the preserve to photograph mammals. Cameras are checked and moved regularly to sample different parts of the preserve.
Principal investigator: APBPC
Temporal changes in the bird community
Temporal changes in the bird community
Point count stations are located on the trail system throughout the preserve. Brown thrasher [upper right] is a species of greatest conservation need in New York that benefits from the restoration of pitch pine-scrub oak barrens.
Background: Invasive plants and decades of fire suppression have degraded pitch pine-scrub oak barrens or changed them to forest. Consequently, restoring the vegetation communities of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve to pitch pine-scrub oak barrens can require considerable changes to the vegetation (e.g., converting non-native black locust forests to grasslands or oak-pine forests to pitch pine-scrub oak barrens). These changes in vegetation are expected to lead to decreases in bird species that prefer forests and increases in those preferring woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands.
Study objective: Document how the diversity, distribution, and abundance of birds in the APBP changes over time in response to management.
Methods: At permanent point count stations located throughout the preserve, scientists record the number and variety of all bird species seen and heard in a 10-minute period during the breeding season of each year.
Principal investigator: APBPC
Vegetation and soil response to management
Vegetation and soil response to management
To restore pitch pine-scrub oak barrens, black locust are removed and native vegetation is replanted.
Background: Black locust is a nitrogen-fixing tree that invaded pitch pine-scrub oak barrens, converted them to closed-canopy forest, and altered soil chemistry. As part of the effort to restore pitch pine-scrub oak barrens, black locust is removed from the preserve, native vegetation is planted, and fire is reintroduced through prescribed burning. It is important to understand if these efforts are successful in reverting the degraded habitats to their historical condition and to identify any potential barriers that are preventing this goal from being reached.
Study objective: Investigate if management (i.e., removal of the trees, replanting of native species, and the use of prescribed fire) is successfully restoring vegetation and soil chemistry of pitch pine-scrub oak barrens to its historical condition.
Methods: Vegetation and soil chemistry were compared among sites that experienced a range of land use histories (never-invaded by black locust, currently-invaded, and restored for 0-17 years) and fire regimes.
The Albany Pine Bush Discovery Center will be closed to the public on the following dates:
Thursday November 28, 2024- All day
Tuesday December 10, 2024- 11:30-4
Tuesday December 24, 2024- All day
Wednesday December 25, 2024- All day
Wednesday January 1, 2025- All day
Preserve trails will remain open on these dates.
October 16, 2023
Preserve Management: Mowing Treatments
Pine Barrens restoration mowing will be starting in the preserve on Monday, November 4. Various trails will be temporarily closed with signage for several days at a time. For your own safety please do not enter these areas while this work is taking place. Consider visiting a part of the preserve that you have maybe never visited before until the mowing is completed. Thank you.
If you have any questions or concerns about this management work, please contact Stewardship Director, Joel Hecht at 518-456-0655 or jhecht@albanypinebush.org
November 30, 2022
Preserve Management: Pine Barrens Restoration
Pine Barrens Habitat restoration is scheduled to begin the week of October 28 on 45 acres in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve. This forested site, at the intersection of Kings Road and Morris Road, will be thinned in late 2024 and then stumped and planted in early 2025. The objective is to restore this site to the pine barrens it once was.
During this time this site is CLOSED to all public use. For your own safety please visit some of the many other parts of the preserve while this work is underway.
Click here if you need a mobile friendly version of our trailmap.
Please contact Stewardship Director, Joel Hecht with any questions or concerns. 518-456-0655 or jhecht@albanypinebush.org
October 12, 2020
Hunting, Fishing & Trapping
Hunting, fishing and trapping are recreational activities that are carefully regulated in the preserve and across NYS.
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