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ECOLOGICAL CONDITION OF THE ESTUARIES OF OREGON AND WASHINGTON
Citation:
HAYSLIP, G., L. EDMOND, V. PARTRIDGE, W. G. NELSON, H. LEE, F. A. COLE, J. O. LAMBERSON, AND L. CATON. ECOLOGICAL CONDITION OF THE ESTUARIES OF OREGON AND WASHINGTON. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA 910-R-06-001, 2006.
Impact/Purpose:
To use data collected as part of the Western Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program to describe the quality of estuaries in Oregon and Washington
Description:
Estuaries are bodies of water that receive freshwater and sediment from rivers and saltwater from the oceans. They are transition zones between the fresh water of a river and the salty environment of the sea. This interaction produces a unique environment that supports wildlife and fisheries and contributes substantially to the ecology and economy of coastal areas.
Recent studies have shown that growth of the human population is concentrated in the coastal areas (Culliton, 1990). This population growth in the coastal areas of the west is a principal driver for many stresses to the ecosystem such as habitat loss, pollution, and nutrient enhancement. These stressors can affect the sustainability of coastal ecological resources (Copping and Bryant, 1993). Increased globalization of the economy is a major influence in the introduction of exotic species into port and harbors. Major environmental policy decisions at local, state and federal levels will determine the future for estuarine conditions of the western U.S. Information on the ecological condition of estuaries is essential to these policy decisions.
The overall quality of estuaries in Oregon and Washington is described in this report using data collected as part of the Western Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP). In EPA Region 10, Western EMAP is a cooperative effort between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD), EPA Region 10, the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology), the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ), the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and others. Much of this report is based on work by ODEQ (Sigmon, 2004), ecology (Wilson and Partridge, 2005) and EPA ORD (Nelson, 2005 and U.S. EPA, 2004).