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DEVELOPING A NATIONALLY CONSISTENT APPROACH FOR ASSESSING REGIONAL ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN NUTRIENTS AND BENTHIC BIOLOGICAL CONDITION IN ESTUARINE WATERS. AN ANALYSIS USING NATIONAL COASTAL ASSESSMENT DATA
Citation:
NESTLERODE, J., E. J. WEISSBERGER, A. T. MORZILLO, J. W. HOLLISTER, AND J. F. PAUL. DEVELOPING A NATIONALLY CONSISTENT APPROACH FOR ASSESSING REGIONAL ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN NUTRIENTS AND BENTHIC BIOLOGICAL CONDITION IN ESTUARINE WATERS. AN ANALYSIS USING NATIONAL COASTAL ASSESSMENT DATA. Presented at 2007 EMAP Symposium, Washington, DC, April 10 - 11, 2007.
Description:
Identifying candidate water quality criteria in estuarine waters is confounded by differences among estuaries and biogeographic regions. Dealing with these differences is paramount to successfully addressing estuarine water quality impairment. As such, we outline an approach to investigate relationships between water column nutrient concentrations and the condition of estuarine benthic communities to identify candidate water quality criteria in estuarine waters. Using data from the National Coastal Assessment, a nationally-consistent, probability-based estuarine monitoring program, and statistical techniques used to develop the USEPA¿s Suspended and Bedded Sediments (SABS) water quality criteria, we are addressing the following questions across estuary, biogeographic region, and national levels:
1.) Are particular nutrient variables that are associated with benthic condition?
2.) Are these explanatory variables consistent at the national level (if not, what regional differences exist)?
3.) How can broad scale associations from regional to national levels be used to inform the setting of locally specific estuarine benthic biological condition?
4.) Because benthic condition indices vary across biogeographic regions, it is possible to use a consistent approach to develop a nationally consistent and biologically relevant measure of benthic biological condition?
These broad scale associations from regional to national levels may be used to inform the USEPA Office of Water during the process of developing national nutrient criteria for estuaries and to intercalibrate estuarine benthic condition indices across the nation.
Key words: nutrients, benthic condition index, estuaries, landscape ecology, water quality, benthic-pelagic coupling, biological indicators