Impact/Purpose:

.Enable states, regions and tribes to evaluate conditions of streams and rivers using biological and physical data.

�Develop indicators that can be used to measure and report the condition of regional aquatic resources

�Develop the next generation of biological indicators to measure aquatic resource characteristics: species genetic diversity and real-time bioavailability to chemical stressors.

�Develop strategies to determine if nutrients, clean sediments, habitat alteration, altered flow and geomorphology or chemical contamination are the causes of biological impairment in rivers and streams locally and at regional scales.

�Provide unique correlations of condition indicators with molecular diagnostic indicators.

�Project potential future stream conditions based on different land use and human exploitation.

FY00

APG 026: Report on monitoring findings in the Mid-Atlantic Region as a cost effective means of measuring the condition of these systems.

Description:

The Ecological Indicator Program in NERL is developing indicators for two key purposes. The first is to characterize the biological condition of shallow streams and large rivers. The second is to develop diagnostic indicators to evaluate the causes of impairment to these communities. These indicators are used in the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) and the Regional Vulnerability and Assessment (ReVA), and by state and local environmental organizations.

Stream-condition indicators inform us about valued biological resources: benthic macro-invertebrates, fish and algae. Indices of fish assemblages and their genetic diversity are important both because the public values fish as wildlife (e.g., food, sport, and biodiversity), and because exposures to fish can serve as surrogate indicators of environmental exposures to all life, including humans. Periphyton assemblages in streams (microscopic algae attached to stream beds and sediments) are an important resource because they are often the principal primary producers in streams. Benthic macro-invertebrates (bottom-dwelling insect larvae, molluscs, etc.) also are an important constituent of aquatic food chains. Stream-condition indicators also reflect the overall integrity of ecosystems, including genetic diversity, nutrient cycling, hydrological and geomorphological factors, and landscape changes that can alter stream resources. Measurement techniques under investigation include In-stream measurements, modeled estimates, biochemical, chemical and molecular assays, modeled, and remote sensing.

Diagnostic indicator research will develop indicators and provide guidance for determining the causes of impairments to rivers and streams and a framework for clearly presenting the direct and inferential evidence used to determine the causes of impairment. Emphasis is on rivers and streams and those pollutants that have been implicated for 303(d) listed waters and that are ecologically important. The top five 303(d) listed ecological stressors are: sediment, nutrients, metals, dissolved oxygen (usually linked to enrichment) and habitat and hydrologic alteration. (Keywords:Ecological Indicators, Biological Impairment, Condition, River, Stream, Diagnostics, Index, fish, benthic invertebrates)

Record Details: