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BIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF LARGE RIVERS IN THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY REGION 5: AN INTER-AGENCY COLLABORATION
Citation:
JOHNSON, B. R., E. EMERY, J. THOMAS, J. M. LAZORCHAK, J. E. FLOTEMERSCH, K. A. BLOCKSOM, AND C. YODER. BIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF LARGE RIVERS IN THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY REGION 5: AN INTER-AGENCY COLLABORATION. Presented at 2005 EPA Science Forum, Washington, DC, May 16 - 18, 2005.
Impact/Purpose:
The goal of this research is to develop methods and indicators that are useful for evaluating the condition of aquatic communities, for assessing the restoration of aquatic communities in response to mitigation and best management practices, and for determining the exposure of aquatic communities to different classes of stressors (i.e., pesticides, sedimentation, habitat alteration).
Description:
Biological assessment of our nation's large rivers has lagged behind that of smaller streams because of a lack of appropriate methods, necessary training, and disturbance indicators. The need for assessment of large rivers has risen along with an increasing awareness of pollutant runoff, cumulative stressor effects, and observed degradation in coastal zones. The NERL in Cincinnati and the ORSANCO are addressing this issue through a collaborative effort to develop standardized assessment methods and appropriate biological indicators for large rivers of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Region 5. The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) was developed to provide monitoring designs and indicators that yield unbiased estimates of ecological conditions, but it had not been previously applied to large river resources. Through Regional-EMAP (R-EMAP), the ORSANCO and MBI are using standardized methods to sample fish assemblages at 30 randomly selected sites on each of up to 11 large river tributaries to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers from 20042006. The Regional Methods Program (designated specifically for methodological needs of states, regions, and tribes) is funding the NERL to sample a subset of the R-EMAP target rivers to provide multi-assemblage assessments. The NERL is using a standardized Large River Bioassessment Protocol (LR-BP) to collect aquatic invertebrates, phytoplankton, and water chemistry at 25 sites on each of six target rivers in 20042005. This collaborative effort will provide the necessary assessment tools for states and tribes to begin developing biocriteria for these vital large river resources.