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Susan Butler

Susan Butler is a Biologist with the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center. 

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Winter Manatee Foraging Behavior and the Decline of Seagrass Beds in the Northern Indian River Lagoon

Health Effects and Behavioral Response of Florida Manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) to Persistent Algal Bloom and Associated Loss of Seagrass Resources in Brevard County, Florida

USGS researchers are working with partners to assess the health and foraging behavior of Florida manatees in the northern Indian River Lagoon and Banana River, areas that have experienced declining seagrasses due to an extended phytoplankton bloom.
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Ecosystems, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Species Management Research Program, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center
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Health Effects and Behavioral Response of Florida Manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) to Persistent Algal Bloom and Associated Loss of Seagrass Resources in Brevard County, Florida

USGS researchers are working with partners to assess the health and foraging behavior of Florida manatees in the northern Indian River Lagoon and Banana River, areas that have experienced declining seagrasses due to an extended phytoplankton bloom.
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Analysis of body condition indices reveals different ecotypes of the Antillean manatee

Assessing the body condition of wild animals is necessary to monitor the health of the population and is critical to defining a framework for conservation actions. Body condition indices (BCIs) are a non-invasive and relatively simple means to assess the health of individual animals, useful for addressing a wide variety of ecological, behavioral, and management questions. The Antillean manatee (Tr
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Traveling to thermal refuges during stressful temperatures leads to foraging constraints in a central-place forager

Central-place foragers can be constrained by the distance between habitats. When an organism relies on a central place for thermal refuge, the distance to food resources can potentially constrain foraging behavior. We investigated the effect of distance between thermal refuges and forage patches of the cold-intolerant marine mammal, the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris), on foraging
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Coastal habitat change and marine megafauna behavior: Florida manatees encountering reduced food provisions in a prominent winter refuge

A decline in submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) within Florida’s spring-fed thermal refuges raises questions about how these systems support winter foraging of Florida manatees Trichechus manatus latirostris. We analyzed telemetry data for 12 manatees over 7 yr to assess their use of Kings Bay, a winter refuge with diminished SAV. After accounting for the effect of water temperature, we hypothesiz
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Movements and habitat use locations of manatees within Kings Bay Florida during the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge winter season (November 15–March 31)

Kings Bay, Florida, is one of the most important natural winter habitat locations for the federally threatened Trichechus manatus latirostris (Florida manatee). Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1983 specifically to provide protection for manatees and their critical habitat. To aid managers at the refuge and other agencies with this task, spatial analyses of local habitat u
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Consortial brown tide − picocyanobacteria blooms in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba

A brown tide bloom of Aureoumbra lagunensis developed in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba during a period of drought in 2013 that followed heavy winds and rainfall from Hurricane Sandy in late October 2012. Based on satellite images and water turbidity measurements, the bloom appeared to initiate in January 2013. The causative species (A. lagunensis) was confirmed by microscopic observation, and pigment and g
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Timing of warm water refuge use in Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge by manatees—Results and insights from Global Positioning System telemetry data

Managers at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge (CRNWR) desire to update their management plan regarding the operation of select springs including Three Sisters Springs. They wish to refine existing parameters used to predict the presence of federally threatened Trichechus manatus latirostris (Florida manatee) in the springs and thereby improve their manatee m
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Landscape complementation revealed through bipartite networks: An example with the Florida manatee

Context Landscape complementation, or how landscapes that contain two or more non-substitutable and spatially separated resources facilitate resource use, is critical for many populations. Implicit to the problem of landscape complementation is the movement of individuals to access multiple resources. Conventional measures of complementation, such as habitat area or distance between habitats, do n
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Manatees mapping seagrass (USA & Puerto Rico)

West Indian manatees (Trichechus manatus) are secretive creatures. While some of their behaviours at winter aggregation sites in Florida are readily visible to the casual observer, many of their habits and movements are difficult to observe. They rely on submerged vegetation for nutrition, and seagrasses are one of their most important food sources.
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Integrated Science: Florida Manatees and Everglades Hydrology

Predicting and monitoring restoration effects on Florida manatees, which are known to make extended movements, will be incomplete if modeling and monitoring are limited to the smaller areas defined by the various res-toration components. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) efforts, thus far, have focused on (1) collecting manatee movement data throughout the Ten Thousand Islands (TTI) region, and (2) de
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Research on the impacts of past and future hurricanes on the endangered Florida manatee

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research on Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) from 1982 through 1998 identified lower apparent survival rates for adult manatees during years when Hurricane Elena (1985), the March "Storm of the Century"(1993), and Hurricane Opal (1995) hit the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Although our analysis showed that a significant number of our monitored
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Modeling manatee response to restoration in the Everglades and Ten Thousand Islands

No abstract available.
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Movements and habitat requirements of radio tagged manatees in southwest Florida: Implications for restoration assessment

No abstract available.
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Ecosystems, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Morphological measurements of Antillean manatees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

The data were collected by U.S.G.S. biologists and their partners during several field trips from March 2013 to April 2014 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Data were collected during the manatee health assessments. The U.S. Geological Survey's Sirenia Project is a federal research effort focusing on manatee biology and ecology with a long history of studies in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the international
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Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

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