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Plum Island LTER. Chesapeake Bay. Neuse/ Pamlico. North Inlet. EaGLe. GLEI. www.asc.psu.edu. glei.nrri.umn.edu. www.aceinc.org. EPA STAR’s Estuarine and Great Lakes (EaGLe) Coastal Initiative. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Objectives:
1. Enhance the data archive for these estuaries with remotely sensed and time-series information
2. Exploit detailed knowledge of ecosystem structure and function to develop candidate indicators
3. Test the ability of these indicators to gauge ecosystem health and detect trends resulting from both natural variability and anthropogenic stresses
Our research plan includes the development of:
• Indicators of microalgal and macrophyte functional groups controlling primary production
• Indicators capable of determining plankton and fish community structure (organization) and function
• Biological indicators coupled to physical-chemical and remote sensing assessments of ecosystem function, trophic state and change
• Indicators to be applied within a national coastal framework by establishing collaborations with other EaGLe Centers and EPA/NSF/NOAA-supported ecological indicator research
Plum IslandLTER
ChesapeakeBay
Neuse/Pamlico
NorthInlet
www.aceinc.org
EPA STAR’s Estuarine and Great Lakes (EaGLe) Coastal InitiativeGoal: Develop the next generation of indicators of environmental condition for the US coastlines to help EPA’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) meet state needs.
Five keys to improving indicators of coastal condition:• Link stressors (causes) with responses (effects)• Separate multiple stressors, especially anthropogenic from natural perturbations.
Great Lakes Environmental Indicators Project GLEI
glei.nrri.umn.edu
Problem: Eutrophication and hypoxia
Objectives: 1. Develop and validate indicators of nutrient and
DO impacts on estuarine condition at different biological, spatial and temporal scales
2. Evaluate indicators by conducting highly-coordinated studies in distinct estuarine ecosystems including Pensacola Bay and Mobile Bay
• Address multiple scales, from small watersheds to large estuaries or biogeographical regions.• Provide reference conditions as a benchmark from which to compare future assessments.• Integrate indicators into suites suitable for use by agencies and managers.
www.usm.edu/gcrl/ceer_gom
Atlantic Slope Consortium
EaGLe
www.bml.ucdavis.edu/peeir
Indicator types:
• Early warning: microbial biofilms and crustacean genes sensitive to hypoxia and/or nutrients
• Fish reproduction: molecular and morphological responses to DO stress
• Invertebrate communities: changes in community structure due to hypoxia and nutrients
• Land use: cause-effect linkages between land use and nutrients/hypoxia
• Primary production: remote sensing of whole-estuary chlorophyll a using satellite imagery
Goal:• Develop and test a set of indicators in freshwater and
coastal systems that are ecologically appropriate, economically reasonable, and relevant to society
Objectives:• Develop and test indicators of aquatic resource condition • Use environmental, geographic, and stressor data to predict indicator
responses at a variety of scales • Establish linkages between upstream watersheds and downstream
estuaries • Deliver a nested suite of indicators to managers
Four “messages” from our research:1. A taxonomic key of indicators can be used to guide managers to the best
indicators to use for various situations and questions
2. Land use affects the attainment of estuarine condition downstream
3. Both the amount and spatial arrangement of land uses affect the attainment of stream and wetland condition.
4. Community efficiency in providing quality of life for watershed/estuary residents can be assessed by combining ecological indicators with socio-economic indicators.
Goal:• Develop indicators of salt marsh condition that can be used to
diagnose the significance of specific causes of stress as well as to facilitate restoration and management
Pacific Estuarine Ecosystem Indicator Research Consortium
Objectives:1. Identify relevant coastal environmental indicators and their
potential stressors within the Great Lakes watershed
2. Establish a large-scale field study to examine relationships between stresses and responses
3. Recommend a suite of hierarchically-structured indicators (spatial, temporal, and biological) that are useful for making informed management decisions
Key results:• Establishment of a process and method to quantify
multiple human disturbance gradients across the whole US Great Lakes basin
• Development of biological response indicators for nutrients, exotic species and land use
• Assessment of land use change from 1992 – 2001 for the entire US Great Lakes watershed
Public archiving of data:• EaGle data will be archived through EPA’s
Environmental Information Management System (EIMS)• Prototype data archiving system to capture and make
publicly available data collected under EPA STAR grants
Consortium for Estuarine Ecoindicator Research for the Gulf of Mexico
Atlantic Coast Environmental Indicators Consortium
www.asc.psu.edu
Goal:• Develop indicators that can effectively, efficiently, and economically
measure and monitor the condition of the Great Lakes coast as well as point to causes of impairment
USEPANCER
Objectives:1. Identify an integrated approach to salt marsh management and
monitoring that complements the existing ecological risk paradigm used to assess effects of toxic substances
2. Develop an integrated suite of indicators to assess effects of stressors at multiple scales using a large scale field study that evaluates relationships between stresses and response
3. Evaluate the utility of our findings in current management scenarios
Key results:• Development of an indicator species approach for monitoring
effects of contaminants in salt marsh species with tools ranging from molecular techniques to diagnose specific contaminants to population viability assessments that allow managers to weigh the significance of detrimental responses.
• Development of specific indicators for endocrine disruption effects, nutrient enrichment, bird abundance and diversity, fish condition, shellfish condition, toxic metal bioavailability and mobilization, and marsh plant community change.