Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management

As critical infrastructure systems consider whether and how to adapt and build resilience to climate variability and change, more research is needed to holistically explore the dynamics of resilience-building changes over time. We begin to fill this gap with a case study of the Rhode Island public wastewater sector. The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management has invested significant funding, technical assistance, capacity building, and regulatory pressure to help publicly owned wastewater systems build resilience to climate challenges since 2010. To trace, assess, and understand the dynamics of resilience-building efforts over time, we interviewed wastewater utility and municipal personnel using event history calendars (EHCs). EHCs helped respondents recall details of relevant events, including potentially disruptive storms/incidents, and how they responded, including large- and small-scale adaptations, during the study period (2010-2023). We used EHCs to trace resilience and transformation capacities over time, and to analyze and predict movement toward transformational adaptation. We found that factors that best enable movement from incremental to transformational changes include unlocking capacity, or the organizational cultural value of in-depth learning/change, and a suite of contextual supports - new information, forward-looking collaborators, and stable funding sources - which require buy-in across levels of governance. We also found that, with organizational culture considered, experiencing disruption is not predictive of pursuing transformative adaptation. This suggests decision-making strategies for states, local jurisdictions, and utility managers to support climate adaptation and resilience in critical infrastructure, such as eliminating path-dependencies and silos, lowering thresholds for action, and leveraging networks to support moving toward transformation.

Abstract Objective This research collates numerous data sets, including long-term fisheries monitoring surveys, predators, water quality, and fishing pressure, to explore possible biotic and abiotic correlates that may be hindering the recovery of a Winter Flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus subpopulation. Methods Age-0 (i.e., young-of-year) Winter Flounder and spawning contingents within a single coastal lagoon, Point Judith Pond (Rhode Island), were evaluated across two decades (1999–2020) to determine how potential ecological drivers and harvest have contributed to the subpopulation's state. Available data sets describing predators of both age-0 and adult Winter Flounder, fecal coliform measurements, water temperature, and commercial and recreational harvest were run in a correlative analysis with age-0 and adult Winter Flounder. Result Despite decreases in fishing mortality within the pond, there has been no recovery within the Point Judith Pond subpopulation—a shared response across the stock unit. Although it is possible that an increase in predators of eggs, age-0 Winter Flounder, and spawning adults may be hindering the recovery of this subpopulation, other characteristics, such as water quality, habitat degradation, and prey availability, may also be important contributing factors. The survival rates of age-0 Winter Flounder through their first summer appear to have been relatively unchanged over the course of the research, but there has been a contraction in both the spawning period and the maximum size of adult female Winter Flounder in the study area. Conclusion By the time a fishing moratorium was implemented in Point Judith Pond, Winter Flounder abundance was already below time series historic minimums. With fishing pressure seemingly no longer regulating population size, other management strategies must be developed to address natural mortality and habitat degradation.

Anthropogenic developments alter the environment and resources available to wildlife communities. In response to these real or perceived threats from this development, species may adjust their spatial occurrence. Additionally, wildlife species may adjust when in diel time (24‐h light–dark cycle) they occupy sites on the landscape to adapt to changing conditions. However, many wildlife studies only focus on where a species does and does not occur, ignoring how species may shift their diel activity at sites to mitigate threats. We used a multi‐state diel occupancy modeling framework to investigate how a community of mammals (mesocarnivores, urban‐adapted omnivores, and herbivore/small mammals) respond to differing levels of anthropogenic development and forest cover across two climatic seasons. We collected camera trap data at 240 survey locations across the summer and winter of 2021–2022. We modeled multi‐state diel occupancy for 14 mammal species with extent of development/forest and season hypothesized to influence diel occupancy and season hypothesized to influence the probability of detection. We found that all species displayed heterogeneity in both diel occupancy and detection either by extent of development/forest and or season. Within the mesocarnivore species group, coyote and red fox were less sensitive to development and had higher occupancy probability at these sites in general but used them more during the night, while more sensitive mesocarnivores including fisher and bobcat occupied the day state only when there was increasing forest cover. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating diel activity in habitat modeling to better understand the relationship between a species and its landscape, particularly in a region that is vulnerable to increased anthropogenic pressure.

Oysters and other shellfish are not a food that is commonly highlighted as high risk for Campylobacter contamination. The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) conducted a multiagency investigation of a Campylobacter jejuni outbreak that was linked to the consumption of raw oysters; the first such outbreak was detected in Rhode Island. The environmental investigation identified birds as the likely source of contamination of the aquacultured oysters. As a result of this outbreak response, several investigative processes and best practice recommendations are offered. 1) RIDOH will be including exposure to raw shellfish as a question on their case report forms to better identify future oyster-related Campylobacter clusters. 2) It is important that shellfish aquaculture farms be aware of the risks of using floating gear to hold oyster cages and of the importance of using bird abatement to keep birds off floating aquaculture gear to prevent contamination of oysters from bird feces. 3) It should be recognized that fecal coliform water samples collected near an oyster aquaculture farm may not act as an adequate indicator for the presence of Campylobacter. 4) For the first time, Rhode Island has developed guidelines for the closure and reopening of oyster harvest areas due to contamination with Campylobacter. It is hoped that increased awareness and mitigation of the described risk factors will help prevent future similar outbreaks of illness.

Abstract As the world develops sources of renewable energy, there is an intensifying interest in offshore wind energy production. The Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf (NES) ecosystem has favorable wind dynamics, with active development of wind energy. In this study, we present species distribution models that consider both occupancy and biomass responses for a broad spectrum of fish and macroinvertebrate taxa (n = 177). Building upon prior analyses, habitat was differentiated into overall and core habitats based on statistical distributions of habitat scores. Overall habitat was used to show each species' regional distribution based on fishery-independent survey captures between 1976 and 2019, whereas core habitat represented where the focus of the species' abundance was located as a subset of overall habitat. Wind energy developments may modify the water column in ways that impact lower-trophic-level productivity; therefore, added attention was given to the response of forage species. Over 20% of species showed preferential use of putative and potential wind development areas, including a disproportionate number of forage taxa. Principal usage varied by season, with forage species like Atlantic Menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus and Atlantic Mackerel Scomber scombrus preferentially using the lease areas in spring and Round Herring Etrumeus teres and longfin inshore squid Doryteuthis pealeii using lease areas in autumn. For species with relatively low usage of the lease areas, there was a tendency for the usage related to overall habitat to be lower than usage for core habitat; in contrast, for species with high usage of the lease areas, that usage was higher for overall habitat than for core habitat. The area of habitat tended to have positive trends across species, with these positive trends being disproportionately higher among forage taxa. These results frame the importance of wind lease areas for species in the NES, particularly forage taxa that fulfill many important ecological functions.

Decadal changes in the life history events of marine species are becoming increasingly important to identify under a warming climate, yet many long-term monitoring programs do not collect data at the spatiotemporal resolution needed to describe them. Such data are vital for understanding the southern New England/Mid-Atlantic winter flounderPseudopleuronectes americanusstock, a species hypothesized to be adversely impacted by warming waters via increased temporal overlap between its early life stages and predators. To provide insight into winter flounder early life history dynamics and context for resiliency of the stock, we examined ichthyoplankton data collected from 2 monitoring programs within Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA: one spatially comprehensive dataset across the bay proper (2001-2008, 2016-2017), and the other a longer time series centered in one of the sub-estuaries of the bay (Mount Hope Bay, 1972-2017). By leveraging these datasets together, we conducted a spatiotemporal synthesis of early life stage winter flounder by evaluating changes in larval phenology, decadal coherence in larval spatial patterns, and correspondence between larvae and their subsequent life stage. We identified changes in larval phenology via earlier seasonal peaks in density through time. Results also indicated stable larval spatial patterns during a period of larval decline, as well as spatial coherence between larval and young-of-the-year stages. Using winter flounder as a model species, our results highlight the importance of high-resolution spatiotemporal ichthyoplankton sampling to identify changes in phenology and site fidelity for marine fishes.

Abstract The diatomPseudo-nitzschiaproduces the neurotoxin domoic acid (DA) that bioaccumulates in shellfish, causing illness in humans and marine animals upon ingestion. In 2017, high levels of DA in shellfish meat closed shellfish harvest in Narragansett Bay (NBay), Rhode Island for the first time in history, although abundantPseudo-nitzschiahave been observed for over 50 years. What caused these events is unknown: whether an environmental factor altered endemicPseudo-nitzschiaphysiology or new DA-producing strain(s) were introduced. To investigate, we conducted weekly sampling from 2017-2019 to compare with 2016 precautionary closure and 2017 closure samples. Particulate DA was quantified by highly sensitive LC-MS/MS and correlated with environmental metadata.Pseudo-nitzschiawere identified using high-throughput rDNA sequencing, yielding a detailed understanding of distinct seasonal multi-species assemblages. Low DA was detected throughout 2017-2019, except in recurring peaks in the fall and early summer. Fall DA peaks contained toxigenic species (P. pungensvar.pungens, P. multiseries, P. calliantha,andP. subpacifica) as well as a novelP. americanataxon. Fewer species were present during summer DA peaks including toxigenicP. multiseries, P. plurisecta,andP. delicatissima.Most 2017 closure samples containedP. australis.Our data showedP. australisas infrequent but particularly concerning. RecurringPseudo-nitzschiaassemblages were driven by seasonal temperature changes and DA correlated with low dissolved inorganic nitrogen. Thus, the NBay closures were likely caused by resident assemblages dependent on nutrient status as well as the episodic introductions of species that may be a result of oceanographic and climactic shifts.