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ECOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Impact/Purpose:
Develop and validate measures of aquatic resources that reflect the ability of coastal ecosystems to provide fishable and swimmable waters that support aquatic life criteria: (1) a fish health index (FHI) as an indicator of ecosystem capacity to sustain aquatic life; (2) a fish community index to indicate the ability of coastal ecosystems to sustain diverse populations of fish; (3) use microorganisms and their genes as indicators of fishable and swimmable status in coastal and estuarine waters.
Description:
EMAP has traditionally relied on indicators of ecological condition to report on the extent to which coastal waters are impaired. Correlations between biological indicators and physical or chemical indicators may generate hypotheses about potential causes of impairment but are not diagnostic in nature. In addition, indicators of value to society (i.e., fishable and swimmable waters) have been absent from monitoring and assessment of condition. The top five characteristics of ideal indicators are 1) biological relevance, 2) social relevance, 3) sensitivity to stressors, 4) broad applicability, and 5) diagnostic of cause and effect (Cairns et al., 1993). This task examines the potential to develop measurements related to actual performance, or attainment of goals related to 'fishable and swimmable waters'. Four ecological performance indicators will be developed within this task. These include a fish health index and fish community indicators for the estuaries of the U.S., an aquatic mortality indicator for valued species, and fecal and pathogen indicators for estuaries.